Transcriptomic characteristics of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and peripheral blood mononuclear cells in COVID-19 patients

• Published in: Emerging microbes & infections Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 761 - 770
• Main Authors: Xiong, Yong, Liu, Yuan, Cao, Liu, Wang, Dehe, Guo, Ming, Jiang, Ao, Guo, Dong, Hu, Wenjia, Yang, Jiayi, Tang, Zhidong, Wu, Honglong, Lin, Yongquan, Zhang, Meiyuan, Zhang, Qi, Shi, Mang, Liu, Yingle, Zhou, Yu, Lan, Ke, Chen, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis 01.01.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Betacoronavirus; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid; Chemokines - analysis; Coronavirus Infections - blood; Coronavirus Infections - genetics; Coronavirus Infections - immunology; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; cytokine; Cytokines; Cytokines - analysis; Humans; inflammation; Lavage; Leukocytes, Mononuclear; Lymphopenia; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral - blood; Pneumonia, Viral - genetics; Pneumonia, Viral - immunology; RNA-Seq; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Signal Transduction; Transcriptome; transcriptome profiling; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; COVID-19; cytokine; transcriptome profiling; inflammation; lymphopenia
• DOI: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1747363
• ISSN: 2222-1751

Circulating in China and 158 other countries and areas, the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has caused devastating mortality and posed a great threat to public health. However, efforts to identify effectively supportive therapeutic drugs and treatments has been hampered by our limited understanding of host immune response for this fatal disease. To characterize the transcriptional signatures of host inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 (HCoV-19) infection, we carried out transcriptome sequencing of the RNAs isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) specimens of COVID-19 patients. Our results reveal distinct host inflammatory cytokine profiles to SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients, and highlight the association between COVID-19 pathogenesis and excessive cytokine release such as CCL2/MCP-1, CXCL10/IP-10, CCL3/MIP-1A, and CCL4/MIP1B. Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 induced activation of apoptosis and P53 signalling pathway in lymphocytes may be the cause of patients' lymphopenia. The transcriptome dataset of COVID-19 patients would be a valuable resource for clinical guidance on anti-inflammatory medication and understanding the molecular mechansims of host response.