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Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (United States) have discovered three types of immune response to Covid-19, which could help predict the trajectory of the disease in seriously ill patients and provide information on how to treat them, according to a study published in 'Science. '.
The coronavirus triggers different immune responses and symptoms in seriously ill patients, but until now it is not well understood how these two factors are related, which makes treatment decisions difficult, the university notes in a note.
The lead author of the study, John Wherry, has pointed out that the immune system of hospitalized patients does not have a single way of responding, but rather there is "a lot of heterogeneity", which the team has reduced to what it calls three "immunotypes".
The researchers took 163 people as a sample: 90 were hospitalized patients, 29 non-hospitalized people and 44 healthy donors.
"Promising" findings
Although the immune responses are not exact, researchers have managed to identify "patterns that are clinically promising," the note adds.
The first immunotype showed "robust activity" of CD4+ T cells, with "modest activation" of CD8+ T cells and peripheral blood lymphocytes. CD4+ and CD8+ act as the main inflammatory immune cells that work to eliminate viruses.
The second was mainly characterized by a subset of CD8+ T cells known as EM and RAMS and modest activation of other CD8+ T cells, memory B cells, and peripheral blood lymphocytes.
"Little or no response"
As for the third immunotype, it showed "little or no evidence of an immune response to infection."
The team then combined each profile with the patients' clinical data to understand the relationships between immune responses and disease.
The data indicated that the first immunotype was associated with more severe disease, including inflammation, organ failure, and acute kidney disease.
The second did not correlate with the severity of the disease, but rather with pre-existing immunosuppression, while the third, which had no immune activation, was not associated with specific symptoms or clinical characteristics.
