Epigenetic immune monitoring for COVID-19 disease course prognosis

Frontiers in Immunology

Immunology

Nina Babel¹  Marta Rosselló Chornet²  Javier Hernández Laforet²  Lourdes Alos Zaragoza²  Laura Lozza³  Björn Samans³  Araceli Rosselló Chornet³  Janine Jung³  Konstantin Schildknecht³  Sven Olek³ 

[1] Center for Translational Medicine, Medical Clinic 1, Marien Hospital Herne, University Hospitals of the Ruhr-University of Bochum, Herne, Germany;Department of Anesthesiology and Resuscitation, Consortium General University Hospital of Valencia, Valencia, Spain;Ivana Türbachova Laboratory for Epigenetics, Epiontis, Precision for Medicine GmbH, Berlin, Germany;

关键词: COVID-19;    SARS-CoV-2;    epigenetic qPCR;    immune monitoring;    lymphopenia;    disease prognosis;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fimmu.2023.1107900

 received in 2022-11-25, accepted in 2023-03-02,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe course of COVID-19 is associated with severe dysbalance of the immune system, causing both leukocytosis and lymphopenia. Immune cell monitoring may be a powerful tool to prognosticate disease outcome. However, SARS-CoV-2 positive subjects are isolated upon initial diagnosis, thus barring standard immune monitoring using fresh blood. This dilemma may be solved by epigenetic immune cell counting.MethodsIn this study, we used epigenetic immune cell counting by qPCR as an alternative way of quantitative immune monitoring for venous blood, capillary blood dried on filter paper (dried blood spots, DBS) and nasopharyngeal swabs, potentially allowing a home-based monitoring approach.ResultsEpigenetic immune cell counting in venous blood showed equivalence with dried blood spots and with flow cytometrically determined cell counts of venous blood in healthy subjects. In venous blood, we detected relative lymphopenia, neutrophilia, and a decreased lymphocyte-to-neutrophil ratio for COVID-19 patients (n =103) when compared with healthy donors (n = 113). Along with reported sex-related differences in survival we observed dramatically lower regulatory T cell counts in male patients. In nasopharyngeal swabs, T and B cell counts were significantly lower in patients compared to healthy subjects, mirroring the lymphopenia in blood. Naïve B cell frequency was lower in severely ill patients than in patients with milder stages.ConclusionsOverall, the analysis of immune cell counts is a strong predictor of clinical disease course and the use of epigenetic immune cell counting by qPCR may provide a tool that can be used even for home-isolated patients.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Samans, Rosselló Chornet, Rosselló Chornet, Jung, Schildknecht, Lozza, Alos Zaragoza, Hernández Laforet, Babel and Olek