High-dimensional immune profiling by mass cytometry revealed immunosuppression and dysfunction of immunity in COVID-19 patients

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the new virus SARS-CoV-2 has been announced as a public health emergency of international concern. The clinical features of patients with COVID-19 range from common fever and cough to other rare symptoms, such as diarrhea and nausea. This disease can progress quickly, and 2–3% of patients die within a short time, which is generally due to multiple organ failure. Clinically, COVID-19 patients are classified into mild, moderate, severe, and critical cases. The immune response against SARS-CoV-2 is probably linked to the severity of disease. Recently, Zheng et al.showed that elevated levels of T-cell exhaustion and reduced functional diversity of T cells in peripheral blood may predict severe progression in COVID-19 patients; however, a more comprehensive understanding of the pathology of SARS-CoV-2 infection remains to be delineated. Here, we profiled immune cellular components using mass cytometry (CyTOF) to analyze the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with differences in disease progression by comparing with the PBMCs from healthy donors (HDs).