Deciphering the T Cell Response in SARS-CoV-2 Infection

📖 The Scoop

COVID-19 is a recently emerged infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The immune system has a primary role in pathogen elimination and a rapid and effective response can limit disease severity. In this context, T cells play the major role in cell mediated adaptive immune response. The protective role of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells has been inferred from studies on patients who recovered from SARS and MERS and accumulating data are now showing their relevance in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Moreover, memory T cells induced by previous pathogens can shape the susceptibility to, and the clinical severity of other infections, but the complete picture has yet to be elucidated. If the virus is not rapidly eliminated, COVID-19 may progress towards a secondary inflammatory phase that is directly responsible for a worsening in clinical symptoms and immune system impairment. Besides marked lymphopenia, COVID-19 patients’ T cell compartment displays several alterations involving different subpopulations of T cells in terms of phenotype, metabolic profile and functionality.

Genre: Medical / General (fancy, right?)