Prolonged enhancement of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the post-recovery state of severe COVID-19

Yumi Mitsuyama; Kazuma Yamakawa; Katsuhide Kayano; Miho Maruyama; Takeshi Wada; Satoshi Fujimi

doi:10.1186/s40560-021-00591-3

Prolonged enhancement of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the post-recovery state of severe COVID-19

J Intensive Care. 2021 Dec 20;9(1):76. doi: 10.1186/s40560-021-00591-3.

Authors

Yumi Mitsuyama¹, Kazuma Yamakawa², Katsuhide Kayano³, Miho Maruyama¹, Takeshi Wada⁴, Satoshi Fujimi¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, Osaka General Medical Center, Osaka, Japan.
² Department of Emergency Medicine, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 2-7 Daigakumachi, Takatsuki, Osaka, 569-8686, Japan. kazuma.yamakawa@ompu.ac.jp.
³ Department of Emergency Medicine, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 2-7 Daigakumachi, Takatsuki, Osaka, 569-8686, Japan.
⁴ Division of Acute and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.

Abstract

We evaluated the peripheral blood immune responses of lymphocytes in severe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in different stages of recovery using single-cell mass cytometry. The patients with prolonged hospitalization did not show recovery of B lymphocyte counts and CD4-positive T lymphocyte counts but did show abundant CD8-positive T lymphocytes. CD4 and CD8 T cells expressing high levels of T-bet and Granzyme B were more abundant in post-recovery patients. This study showed that cytotoxic Th1 and CD8 T cells are recruited to the peripheral blood long after recovery from COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cytotoxic T lymphocytes; Granzyme B; Post-recovery; Single-cell mass cytometry; T-bet.

Publication types

Letter

Grants and funding

19H03759/Ministry of Educastion, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology