key: cord-1054177-4jurhvbi
authors: Jeannet, Robin; Daix, Thomas; Formento, Rémy; Feuillard, Jean; François, Bruno
title: Severe COVID-19 is associated with deep and sustained multifaceted cellular immunosuppression
date: 2020-06-08
journal: Intensive Care Med
DOI: 10.1007/s00134-020-06127-x
sha: aadf3020d8a102a3fca8508f896cbd5cbf1f86d8
doc_id: 1054177
cord_uid: 4jurhvbi

nan

Dear Editor, SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with marked lymphopenia that correlates with morbidity and mortality [1, 2] . Here, we present the first report on serial immunophenotypic and functional changes in 13 consecutively recruited patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus during their first week of ICU stay (Supplementary Table 1) with 10 healthy donors used as controls.

Patients uniformly exhibited deep global and persisting T, NK and B cell lymphopenia from ICU admission (D0) to day 7 (D7) (Fig. 1a to d) . On D0, median absolute lymphocyte count was dramatically reduced at 0.72 [0.65-0.88] G/L as were CD4 and CD8 T cell counts at 0.29 [0.19-0.43] and 0.08 [0.05-0.1] G/L (Fig. 1a , e, f ), such CD4 T cell levels reflecting profound immunosuppression in HIV-infected patients. Few CD4 T cells transiently expressed CTLA-4 during the first 3 days (Fig. 1g ) while expression of PD-1 was observed at D0 and increased until D7 (Fig. 1h ). CD8 T cells significantly and persistently expressed PD-1 from D0 to D7 while CTLA-4 expression remained unchanged (Fig. 1i, j) .

Being heterogeneous at D0 (Fig. 1k) , percentages of regulatory T cells (Tregs) increased during time. Few of them over-expressed CTLA-4 while PD-1 expression was strongly and stably increased until D7 (Fig. 1l, m) . Total granulocytes were moderately increased with a transient egression of immature granulocytes in 4/10 patients at Being either an exhaustion or an activation marker, PD-1 is an inducer of CD8 T cell apoptosis when activated. Therefore, functional evaluation of T-lymphocytes was performed in three patients and controls for comparison. Meanwhile production of TNF-α and IL-2 was normal, CD4 T cell IFN-γ production was decreased ( Supplementary Figure 2) , indicating a CD4 exhaustion process. In contrast, CD8 T cells could be involved in anti-viral immune response since they produced higher levels of IFN-γ and TNF-α (Supplementary Figure 3) . Consistently, percentages of effector CD4 T cells were decreased while those of effector memory and activated CD8 T cells were increased (Supplementary Figure 4a to 4c). Circulating levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were moderately but significantly and sustainly increased over time, reflecting the known SARS-CoV-2 related sub-acute inflammatory response of innate immune cells [4] (Supplementary Figure 5 ).

Although our results warrant further confirmation in larger cohort, they strongly suggest a multifaceted devastating effect of the virus to cause depletion of virtually all classes of adaptive immune cells and to cause upregulation of potent T cell killing and immunosuppressive mechanisms in critically-ill COVID-19 patients. Since T cells are essential for definitive viral clearance, these results call into question therapies (e.g., anti-IL-6, corticosteroids, JAK inhibitors) that aim to block the ability of the patient to mount an effective immune response to *Correspondence: b.francois@unilim.fr the invading SARS-CoV-2. Knowing that almost all antiinflammatory therapies have also chronically failed in sepsis, consideration to therapies that boost host immunity in selected severe ARDS ICU patients (e.g., IL-7, IFN-γ or checkpoint inhibitors) may be appropriate [5, 6] .

The online version of this article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s0013 4-020-06127 -x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. 1 

Clinical outcome of 55 asymptomatic cases at the time of hospital admission infected with SARS-coronavirus-2 in Shenzhen

Clinical and immunological features of severe and moderate coronavirus disease 2019

CD4 + CD25 + CD127-assessment as a surrogate phenotype for FOXP3 + regulatory T cells in HIV-1 infected viremic and aviremic subjects

The many faces of the anti-COVID immune response

Immunosuppression in sepsis: a novel understanding of the disorder and a new therapeutic approach

Interleukin-7 restores lymphocytes in septic shock: the IRIS-7 randomized clinical trial

The authors want to thank the hematology flow cytometry and the virology Laboratories from Limoges as well as the French Reference Laboratory for Herpesviruses, and Prs. Sylvie Rogez and Sophie Alain. The authors acknowledge that without the implication of the nurses from the Clinical Investigation Center this work would not have been possible. They also thank Prs. Philippe Vignon and Richard Hotchkiss for their discussion and proofreading of the letter.

Authors' contributions TD, BF included patients. RJ, RF, JF analyzed the data. RJ, TD drafted the manuscript. JF, BF, and RF reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Biological collection Inserm CIC 1435: DC-2008-604.

All patients agreed on the use of anonymized information as per the French law on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Accepted: 19 May 2020