Autophagy Hijacking in PBMC From COVID-19 Patients Results in Lymphopenia

Autor: Cristiana Barbati, Alessandra Ida Celia, Tania Colasanti, Marta Vomero, Mariangela Speziali, Erisa Putro, Giorgia Buoncuore, Flavia Savino, Serena Colafrancesco, Federica Maria Ucci, Claudia Ciancarella, Eugenia Balbinot, Susanna Scarpa, Francesco Natalucci, Greta Pellegrino, Fulvia Ceccarelli, Francesca Romana Spinelli, Claudio Maria Mastroianni, Fabrizio Conti, Cristiano Alessandri
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Frontiers in Immunology, Vol 13 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1664-3224
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.903498
Popis: Autophagy is a homeostatic process responsible for the self-digestion of intracellular components and antimicrobial defense by inducing the degradation of pathogens into autophagolysosomes. Recent findings suggest an involvement of this process in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, the role of autophagy in the immunological mechanisms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pathogenesis remains largely unexplored. This study reveals the presence of autophagy defects in peripheral immune cells from COVID-19 patients. The impairment of the autophagy process resulted in a higher percentage of lymphocytes undergoing apoptosis in COVID-19 patients. Moreover, the inverse correlation between autophagy markers levels and peripheral lymphocyte counts in COVID-19 patients confirms how a defect in autophagy might contribute to lymphopenia, causing a reduction in the activation of viral defense. These results provided intriguing data that could help in understanding the cellular underlying mechanisms in COVID-19 infection, especially in severe forms.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals