Rutkowska Elżbieta, Kwiecień Iwona, Raniszewska Agata, Kłos Krzysztof, Melnicka Iwona, Rzepecki Piotr, Chciałowski Andrzej
Department of Internal Medicine and Hematology, Military Institute of Medicine-National Research Institute, Laboratory of Hematology and Flow Cytometry, Warsaw, Poland.
Department of Internal Medicine and Hematology, Military Institute of Medicine-National Research Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
Adv Clin Exp Med. 2025 Mar;34(3):393-405. doi: 10.17219/acem/186813.
The coronavirus pandemic has become the most critical global health threat of this century and the greatest challenge to the human population. The search for simple and quick diagnostic methods enabling the identification of patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus may be a valuable method to track infection.
The aim of the study was the clinical and immunological characterization of patients by assessing the degrees of maturity of T lymphocytes from the 1st and 5th waves of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in comparison to a healthy control group (HC).
We determined leukocyte and T lymphocyte subpopulations (recent thymic emigrant (RTE), naïve, effector, central memory and effector memory) in patients from the 1st COVID-19 wave (n = 23), the 5th COVID-19 wave (n = 38) and HC (n=20) using a panel of monoclonal antibodies using multiparameter flow cytometry.
We observed a lower median proportion of lymphocytes and NK cells, and elevated percentage and number of neutrophils in patients from the 5th wave compared to the 1st. We found a reduced percentage of CD4+ effector memory cells in the 1st wave group compared to the 5th wave (14.1 vs 23.2, p < 0.05), and a higher percentage of RTE and naïve CD8+ cells in the 1st wave compared to the 5th wave (p < 0.05). The effector memory CD8+ cells were highest in the 5th wave compared to both 1st wave and HC patients (respectively, 35.1 vs 18.1 vs 19.3%, p < 0.05). The 5th wave group showed significantly more differences compared to HC.
Our results showed a clear increase of effector cells with a simultaneous decrease in virgin T cells in the 5th COVID-19 infection. Monitoring lymphocyte subsets during infection allows assessment of the patient's immune status and of readiness of lymphocytes to respond to the immune response, and may be necessary to improve clinical outcomes.
冠状病毒大流行已成为本世纪最严重的全球健康威胁，也是人类面临的最大挑战。寻找能够识别感染严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2型（SARS-CoV-2）病毒患者的简单快速诊断方法，可能是追踪感染情况的一种有价值的方法。
本研究的目的是通过评估2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）第一波和第五波患者的T淋巴细胞成熟程度，与健康对照组（HC）进行比较，对患者进行临床和免疫学特征分析。
我们使用一组单克隆抗体，通过多参数流式细胞术，测定了第一波COVID-19患者（n = 23）、第五波COVID-19患者（n = 38）和HC（n = 20）的白细胞和T淋巴细胞亚群（近期胸腺迁出细胞（RTE）、初始细胞、效应细胞、中枢记忆细胞和效应记忆细胞）。
我们观察到，与第一波相比，第五波患者的淋巴细胞和自然杀伤细胞的中位数比例较低，中性粒细胞的百分比和数量升高。我们发现，与第五波相比，第一波组中CD4+效应记忆细胞的百分比降低（14.1对23.2，p < 0.05），与第五波相比，第一波中RTE和初始CD8+细胞的百分比更高（p < 0.05）。与第一波和HC患者相比，第五波中的效应记忆CD8+细胞最高（分别为35.1%对18.1%对19.3%，p < 0.05）。与HC相比，第五波组显示出更多显著差异。
我们的结果表明，在第五次COVID-19感染中，效应细胞明显增加，同时原始T细胞减少。在感染期间监测淋巴细胞亚群，可以评估患者的免疫状态以及淋巴细胞对免疫反应的反应准备情况，这可能是改善临床结果所必需的。
