Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
Type
ArticleCopyright
Restricted access
Embargo date
3100-12-31
Collections
Metadata
Show full item record
RAPID PROGRESSION OF CD8 AND CD4 T CELLS TO CELLULAR EXHAUSTION AND SENESCENCE DURING SARS-COV2 INFECTION
T-cell exhaustion
T-cell senescence
Immunosenescence
Inflammaging
Inflammatory cytokines
Author
Affilliation
Abstract
Risk factors for the development of severe COVID-19 include several comorbidities, but age was the most striking one since elderly people were disproportionately affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among the reasons for this markedly unfavorable response in the elderly, immunosenescence and inflammaging appear as major drivers of this outcome. A finding that was also notable was that hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 have an accumulation of senescent T cells, suggesting that immunosenescence may be aggravated by SARS-CoV-2 infection. The present work was designed to examine whether these immunosenescence changes are characteristic of COVID-19 and whether it is dependent on disease severity using cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Our cross-sectional data show that COVID-19, but not other respiratory infections, rapidly increased cellular senescence and exhaustion in CD4 and CD8 T cells during early infection. In addition, longitudinal analyses with patients from Brasil. and Portugal provided evidence of increased frequencies of senescent and exhausted T cells over a 7-d period in patients with mild/moderate and severe COVID-19. Altogether, the study suggests that accelerated immunosenescence in CD4 and especially CD8 T-cell compartments may represent a common and unique outcome of SARS-CoV2 infection.
Keywords in Portuguese
COVID-19Keywords
COVID-19T-cell exhaustion
T-cell senescence
Immunosenescence
Inflammaging
Inflammatory cytokines
Share