Why Do Some People Develop Serious COVID-19 Disease After Infection, While Others Only Exhibit Mild Symptoms?

Abstract

The year 2020 was a landmark year of a once-in-a-century pandemic of a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 virus, that led to a rapidly spreading coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The spectrum of disease with SARS-CoV-2 ranges from asymptomatic to mild upper respiratory illness, to moderate to severe disease with respiratory compromise to acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiorgan failure, and death. Early in the pandemic, risk factors were recognized that contributed to more severe disease, but it became evident that individuals and even young people could have severe COVID-19. As we started to understand the immunobiology of COVID-19, it became clearer that the immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 were variable, and in some cases, the excessive inflammatory response contributed to greater morbidity and mortality. In this review, we will explore some of the additional risk factors that appear to contribute to disease severity and enhance our understanding of why some individuals experience more severe COVID-19. Recent advances in genome-wide associations have identified potential candidate genes in certain populations that may modify the host immune responses leading to dysregulated host immunity. Genetic defects of the type I interferon pathway are also linked to a more clinically severe phenotype of COVID-19. Finally, dysregulation of the adaptive immune system may also play a role in the severity and complex clinical course of patients with COVID-19. A better understanding of the host immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 will hopefully lead to new treatment modalities to prevent the poor outcomes of COVID-19 in those individuals with pre-existing risk factors or genetic variants that contribute to the dysregulated host immune responses.