Impact of chemotherapy and immunotherapy on the composition and function of immune cells in COVID-19 convalescent with gynecological tumors

• Published in: Aging (Albany, NY.) Vol. 13; no. 23; pp. 24943 - 24962
• Main Authors: Qin, Tianyu, Guo, Ensong, Lu, Funian, Fu, Yu, Liu, Si, Xiao, Rourou, Wu, Xue, Liu, Chen, He, Chao, Wang, Zizhuo, Qin, Xu, Hu, Dianxing, You, Lixin, Li, Fuxia, Li, Xi, Huang, Xiaoyuan, Ma, Ding, Xu, Xiaoyan, Yang, Bin, Fan, Junpeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Impact Journals 15.12.2021
• Subjects: Antibodies, Viral - immunology; B-Lymphocytes - drug effects; B-Lymphocytes - immunology; COVID-19 - complications; COVID-19 - immunology; COVID-19 - prevention & control; Female; Genital Neoplasms, Female - complications; Genital Neoplasms, Female - immunology; Genital Neoplasms, Female - therapy; Humans; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors - pharmacology; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Immunotherapy; Research Paper; SARS-CoV-2 - drug effects; SARS-CoV-2 - immunology; Single-Cell Analysis; T-Lymphocytes - drug effects; T-Lymphocytes - immunology; COVID-19; single cell sequencing; chemotherapy; ICIs; tumor
• ISSN: 1945-4589; 1945-4589
• DOI: 10.18632/AGING.203739

Ongoing pandemic and potential resurgence of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has prompted urgent efforts to investigate the immunological memory of convalescent patients, especially in patients with active cancers. Here we performed single-cell RNA sequencing in peripheral blood samples of 3 healthy donors (HDs), 4 COVID-19 patients (Covs) and 4 COVID-19 patients with active gynecological tumor (TCs) pre- and post- anti-tumor treatment. All Covs patients had recovered from their acute infection. Interestingly, the molecular features of PBMCs in TCs are similar to that in Covs, suggesting that convalescent COVID-19 with gynecologic tumors do not have major immunological changes and may be protected against reinfection similar to COVID-19 patients without tumors. Moreover, the chemotherapy given to these patients mainly caused neutropenia, while having little effect on the proportion and functional phenotype of T and B cells, and T cell clonal expansion. Notably, anti-PD-L1 treatment massively increased cytotoxic scores of NK cells, and T cells, and facilitated clonal expansion of T cells in these patients. It is likely that T cells could protect patients from SARS-CoV-2 virus reinfection and anti-PD-L1 treatment can enhance the anti-viral activity of the T cells.