Immune suppression in the early stage of COVID-19 disease

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 5859 - 8
• Main Authors: Tian, Wenmin, Zhang, Nan, Jin, Ronghua, Feng, Yingmei, Wang, Siyuan, Gao, Shuaixin, Gao, Ruqin, Wu, Guizhen, Tian, Di, Tan, Wenjie, Chen, Yang, Gao, George Fu, Wong, Catherine C. L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.11.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/1647/2067; 631/250/255/2514; 692/699/255; 82/58; Betacoronavirus - pathogenicity; Biomarkers - urine; Coronavirus Infections - immunology; Coronavirus Infections - pathology; Coronavirus Infections - urine; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Disease Progression; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Immune response; Immune system; Immune Tolerance; Immunosuppression; Infections; Infectious diseases; multidisciplinary; Pandemics; Pathogenesis; Pneumonia; Pneumonia - immunology; Pneumonia - pathology; Pneumonia - urine; Pneumonia, Viral - immunology; Pneumonia, Viral - pathology; Pneumonia, Viral - urine; Proteome - analysis; Proteomics; Public health; SARS-CoV-2; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Tight Junctions - pathology; Viral diseases; Viral infections
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19706-9

The outbreak of COVID-19 has become a worldwide pandemic. The pathogenesis of this infectious disease and how it differs from other drivers of pneumonia is unclear. Here we analyze urine samples from COVID-19 infection cases, healthy donors and non-COVID-19 pneumonia cases using quantitative proteomics. The molecular changes suggest that immunosuppression and tight junction impairment occur in the early stage of COVID-19 infection. Further subgrouping of COVID-19 patients into moderate and severe types shows that an activated immune response emerges in severely affected patients. We propose a two-stage mechanism of pathogenesis for this unusual viral infection. Our data advance our understanding of the clinical features of COVID-19 infections and provide a resource for future mechanistic and therapeutics studies. How COVID-19 pathology differs from other drivers of pneumonia is unclear. Here the authors analyze urine from patients with COVID-19 and identify an immunosuppressive protein expression pattern that is distinct from the pattern in healthy individuals or patients with non-COVID-19 pneumonia.