Immune monitoring of interleukin-7 compassionate use in a critically ill COVID-19 patient
Guillaume Monneret, Donatien de Marignan, Rémy Coudereau, Céline Bernet, Florence Ader, Émilie Frobert, Morgane Gossez, Sébastien Viel, Fabienne Venet, Florent Wallet
Abstract
One of the immune characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a massive fall in lymphocyte count in which magnitude associates with mortality. 1 , 2 Recent monitoring of COVID-19 intensive care units (ICU) patients confirmed the profound lymphopenia and its remarkable stability over time. 3 , 4 While most immunomodulation approaches proposed so far in COVID-19 focused on inhibiting inflammatory cytokine response; mounting evidence indicates that this viral-induced defective lymphocyte response may play a central role in COVID-19 pathophysiology. 5 Interestingly, recombinant human interleukin-7 (IL-7) therapy, known to efficiently restore lymphocyte count in several viral infections was safely administered in septic shock patients 6 who present with similar lymphocyte alterations as observed in COVID-19. 3