SARS-CoV-2 infection ranges from asymptomatic to severe with lingering symptomatology in some. This prompted investigation of whether or not asymptomatic disease results in measurable immune activation post-infection. Immune activation following asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection was characterized through a comparative investigation of the immune cell transcriptomes from 43 asymptomatic seropositive and 52 highly exposed seronegative individuals from the same community 4–6 weeks following a superspreading event. Few of the 95 individuals had underlying health issues. One seropositive individual reported Cystic Fibrosis and one individual reported Incontinentia pigmenti. No evidence of immune activation was found in asymptomatic seropositive individuals with the exception of the Cystic Fibrosis patient. There were no statistically significant differences in immune transcriptomes between asymptomatic seropositive and highly exposed seronegative individuals. Four positive controls, mildly symptomatic seropositive individuals whose blood was examined 3 weeks following infection, showed immune activation. Negative controls were four seronegative individuals from neighboring communities without COVID-19. All individuals remained in their usual state of health through a five-month follow-up after sample collection. In summary, whole blood transcriptomes identified individual immune profiles within a community population and showed that asymptomatic infection within a super-spreading event was not associated with enduring immunological activation.
【저자키워드】 immunology, Medical research, Computational biology and bioinformatics, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, Transcriptome, SARS-COV-2 infection, Infection, Immune profile, fibrosis, immune, Health, Asymptomatic, immune activation, symptomatic, Patient, asymptomatic infection, Control, Community, cystic fibrosis, Follow-up, Asymptomatic disease, seropositive, seronegative, whole blood transcriptome, Blood, Immune cell, evidence of, no evidence of, transcriptomes, in some, Post-infection, Activation, Incontinentia pigmenti, negative controls, individual, statistically significant difference, one individual, sample collection, positive controls, negative, immunological, examined, reported, remained, characterized, individuals, Cystic, seropositive individual, 【제목키워드】 Transcriptome, SARS-CoV-2, Community, seropositive, seronegative, individual,