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SARS-CoV-2 productively infects primary human immune system cells in vitro and in COVID-19 patients
- Pontelli, Marjorie C;
- Castro, Ítalo A;
- Martins, Ronaldo B;
- La Serra, Leonardo;
- Veras, Flávio P;
- Nascimento, Daniele C;
- Silva, Camila M;
- Cardoso, Ricardo S;
- Rosales, Roberta;
- Gomes, Rogério;
- Lima, Thais M;
- Souza, Juliano P;
- Vitti, Brenda C;
- Caetité, Diego B;
- de Lima, Mikhael HF;
- Stumpf, Spencer D;
- Thompson, Cassandra E;
- Bloyet, Louis-Marie;
- Toller-Kawahisa, Juliana E;
- Giannini, Marcela C;
- Bonjorno, Letícia P;
- Lopes, Maria IF;
- Batah, Sabrina S;
- Siyuan, Li;
- Luppino-Assad, Rodrigo;
- Almeida, Sergio CL;
- Oliveira, Fabiola R;
- Benatti, Maíra N;
- Pontes, Lorena LF;
- Santana, Rodrigo C;
- Vilar, Fernando C;
- Auxiliadora-Martins, Maria;
- Shi, Pei-Yong;
- Cunha, Thiago M;
- Calado, Rodrigo T;
- Alves-Filho, José C;
- Zamboni, Dario S;
- Fabro, Alexandre T;
- Louzada-Junior, Paulo;
- Oliveira, Rene DR;
- Whelan, Sean PJ;
- Cunha, Fernando Q;
- Arruda, Eurico
- Editor(s): Su, Bing
- et al.
Published Web Location
https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjac021Abstract
Abstract: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is associated with a hyperinflammatory state and lymphocytopenia, a hallmark that appears as both signature and prognosis of disease severity outcome. Although cytokine storm and a sustained inflammatory state are commonly associated with immune cell depletion, it is still unclear whether direct SARS-CoV-2 infection of immune cells could also play a role in this scenario by harboring viral replication. We found that monocytes, as well as both B and T lymphocytes, were susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro, accumulating double-stranded RNA consistent with viral RNA replication and ultimately leading to expressive T cell apoptosis. In addition, flow cytometry and immunofluorescence analysis revealed that SARS-CoV-2 was frequently detected in monocytes and B lymphocytes from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. The rates of SARS-CoV-2-infected monocytes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from COVID-19 patients increased over time from symptom onset, with SARS-CoV-2-positive monocytes, B cells, and CD4+ T lymphocytes also detected in postmortem lung tissue. These results indicated that SARS-CoV-2 infection of blood-circulating leukocytes in COVID-19 patients might have important implications for disease pathogenesis and progression, immune dysfunction, and virus spread within the host.
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