Wu Yuanyuan, Serna Raphael, Gan Wenqi, Fan Zhichao
Department of Immunology, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, United States.
Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, United States.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2025 Apr 17;15:1508120. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1508120. eCollection 2025.
Contributions of leukocytes to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) defense have been reported extensively. However, it remains unclear whether there are different leukocyte responses to ancestral SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.
We analyzed peripheral blood leukocyte and subtype concentrations from 575 COVID-19 patients and 950 non-COVID-19 subjects registered at the University of Connecticut John Dempsey Hospital between 2020 and 2022, which covers the ancestral strain, Delta, and Omicron variants.
We found that neutrophils, immature granulocytes, and monocytes were elevated, and lymphocytes were reduced after infection. These hyperactive neutrophils/immature granulocytes and suppressed lymphocytes/monocytes were associated with poorer prognosis in ancestral strain infection. Different from the ancestral strain, hyperactive immature granulocytes were not shown in the decedents of Delta infection, and immature granulocyte concentration was not observed to be associated with mortality. In Omicron infection, suppressed lymphocytes and monocytes were not shown in the decedents, and lymphocyte/monocyte concentrations were not associated with mortality.
Our findings provided insights into different leukocyte immune responses to ancestral SARS-CoV-2, Delta, and Omicron variants.
白细胞对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）防御的贡献已被广泛报道。然而，目前尚不清楚白细胞对原始SARS-CoV-2及其变体是否存在不同反应。
我们分析了2020年至2022年期间在康涅狄格大学约翰·邓普西医院登记的575例新冠肺炎患者和950例非新冠肺炎受试者的外周血白细胞及其亚型浓度，其中涵盖了原始毒株、德尔塔毒株和奥密克戎变体。
我们发现感染后中性粒细胞、未成熟粒细胞和单核细胞升高，淋巴细胞减少。这些活跃的中性粒细胞/未成熟粒细胞以及受抑制的淋巴细胞/单核细胞与原始毒株感染的较差预后相关。与原始毒株不同，德尔塔感染的死亡患者中未出现活跃的未成熟粒细胞，且未观察到未成熟粒细胞浓度与死亡率相关。在奥密克戎感染中，死亡患者中未出现受抑制的淋巴细胞和单核细胞，且淋巴细胞/单核细胞浓度与死亡率无关。
我们的研究结果为白细胞对原始SARS-CoV-2、德尔塔和奥密克戎变体的不同免疫反应提供了见解。
