Analysis of the Long-Term Impact on Cellular Immunity in COVID-19-Recovered Individuals Reveals a Profound NKT Cell Impairment
Jia Liu, Jia Liu, Xuecheng Yang, Hua Wang, Ziwei Li, Hui Deng, Jing Liu, Jing Liu, Shue Xiong, Junyi He, Xuemei Feng, Chunxia Guo, Weixian Wang, Gennadiy Zelinskyy, Mirko Trilling, Kathrin Sutter, Tina Senff, Christopher Menne, Jörg Timm, Yanfang Zhang, Fēi Dèng, Yinping Lu, Jun Wu, Mengji Lu, Dongliang Yang, Ulf Dittmer, Baoju Wang, Xin Zheng
Abstract
Wuhan was the very first city hit by SARS-CoV-2. Accordingly, the patients who experienced the longest phase of convalescence following COVID-19 reside here. This enabled us to investigate the "immunological scar" left by SARS-CoV-2 on cellular immunity after recovery from the disease. In this study, we characterized the long-term impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the immune system and provide a comprehensive picture of cellular immunity of a convalescent COVID-19 patient cohort with the longest recovery time. We revealed that the cellular immune system of COVID-19 patients is still under a sustained influence even months after the recovery from disease; in particular, a profound NKT cell impairment was found in the convalescent phase of COVID-19.