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Long-term infection of SARS-CoV-2 changed the body's immune status

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 218; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.clim.2020.108524

1521-7035

Lan Lin, Shanshan Luo, Renjie Qin, Mengling Yang, Xiaobei Wang, Qianqian Yang, Yang Zhang, Quansheng Wang, Rui Zhu, Heng Fan, Haijun Wang, Yu Hu, Lin Wang, Desheng Hu,

Long-Term Effects of COVID-19

The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2-associated pneumonia, a disease called COVID-19, has caused a pandemic worldwide. To investigate the immune responses after infection of SARS-CoV-2 in non-critical patients may help to better understand the disease progression. We collected 334 confirmed COVID-19 cases including 212 still in hospital with nucleic acid test positive on halfway for SARS-CoV-2 and 122 discharged from hospital, compared specific antibodies, immune cells, and cytokine changes between the hospitalized and discharged patients. The hospitalized patients had a longer illness time compared with discharged patients. Analysis of viral loads explained long-term or persistent infection of SARS-CoV-2, which existed with the median time of 18.5 days of the positive nucleic acid test. Serum analysis showed that the specific anti-N IgG antibody was positive in all detected patients after infection of two weeks. Neutrophils, Monocytes, NK cells, and CD4+ T cells significantly increased, while total lymphocytes and CD8+ T cells decreased from non-critical hospitalized patients after longer-term infection. Further analysis of the cytokines showed that IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-4, and IL-10 from the hospitalized patients were significantly higher, indicating a potential of the increased CD4+ T cell differentiation.