An effective but balanced cellular and inflammatory immune response may limit the severity of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), whereas uncontrolled inflammation leads to disease progression. Older age is associated with higher risk of COVID-19 and a worse outcome, but the underlying immunological mechanisms for this age-related difference are not clear. We investigated the impact of age on viral replication, inflammation, and innate and adaptive cellular immune responses in 205 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. During the early symptomatic phase of COVID-19, we found that patients above 65 years had significantly higher viral load, higher levels of proinflammatory markers, and inadequate mobilization and activation of monocytes, dendritic cells, natural killer cells, and CD8 T cells compared to those below 65 years. Our study points toward age-related deficiencies in the innate immune cellular response to SARS-CoV-2 as a potential cause of poorly controlled viral replication and inflammation during the early symptom phase and subsequent disease progression.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Monocytes, SARS-CoV-2, T cells, NK cells, clinical recovery, age, DCs, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, Inflammation, adaptive, Cellular immune response, severity, Symptom, outcome, dendritic cells, Disease progression, proinflammatory, Viral load, viral replication, symptomatic, Patient, Natural killer cells, cellular response, cellular, innate immune, immunological mechanism, CD8 T cell, deficiency, Activation, hospitalized COVID-19 patients, higher risk, inflammatory immune response, effective, limit, subsequent, investigated, significantly higher, 【제목키워드】 Innate, Effect,