paper: Pierce, C.A., Preston-Hurlburt, P., Dai, Y., Aschner, C.B., Cheshenko, N., Galen, B., Garforth, S., Herrera, N.G., Jangra, R., Morano, N.C., Orner, E., Sy, S., Chandran, K., Dziura, J., Almo, S., Ring, A., Keller, M., Herold, K., & Herold, B. (2020). Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized pediatric and adult patients. Science Translational Medicine, 12.
contributor: Kevan Herold
contributor_organization: Yale University
contributor_email: kevan.herold@yale.edu
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- description: We compared cytokine,humoral, and cellular immune responses in pediatric (children and youth, age < 24 years) (n=65) and adult (n=60) patients with COVID-19 at a metropolitan hospital system in New York City.The serum concentration of IL-17A (Spearman r=-0.5, p<0.0001) and IFN-g (r=-0.44, p=0.0003), but not TNF or IL-6, were inversely related to age. Adults mounted a more robust T cellular response to the spike protein compared to pediatric patients as evidenced by increased expression of CD25+ on CD4+ T cells and frequency of IFN-g+CD4+ T cells. Moreover, the serum neutralizing antibody titers and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis were significantly higher in adults compared to pediatric patients. The neutralizing titer correlated positively with age and negatively with IL-17A and IFN-g (p < 0.01). Together these findings demonstrate that the poor outcome in adults is not attributable to a failure to generate adaptive immune responses. They suggest that a more robust early immune response characterized by IL-17A and IFN-g that occurs in pediatric patients may prevent the excessive adaptive response associated with enhanced immunopathology.
- exact_source: Table 1
- tissue: PBMC and serum
- immune_exposure: SARS-CoV-2
- cohort: Children and adults
- comparison: Severe vs mild disease
- repository_id: N/A
- platform: N/A
- response_components: N/A
- response_behavior: N/A