Deep immune profiling of COVID-19 patients reveals distinct immunotypes with therapeutic implications

July 15, 2020

Mathew D, Giles JR, Baxter AE, et al.

Science

This study performed a deep immune profiling of individual B and T cell populations in a cohort of over 120 COVID-19 patients using high dimensional flow cytometry and investigated the relationship between immune responses and disease severity. In hospitalized patients, immune responses have been found to vary and three immunotypes have been identified. Immunotype 1 is characterized by robust CD4 T cell activation and proliferation, highly activated or exhausted CD8 T cells, and a signature of T-bet + plasmablasts. Immunotype 2 had Tbet bright effector-like CD8 T cell responses with less robust CD4 T cell responses. Immunotype 3 lacked detectable lymphocyte response. Via Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) embedding, an association was found between immunotype 1 and increased severity score. Authors suggest using an immune topology map to determine the most useful interventions for patients.

Mathew D, Giles JR, Baxter AE, et al. Deep immune profiling of COVID-19 patients reveals distinct immunotypes with therapeutic implications. Science (80- ) 2020; : eabc8511.

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