Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Chioh, Florence Wj
• Fong, Siew-Wai
• Young, Barnaby E
• Wu, Kan-Xing
• Siau, Anthony
• Krishnan, Shuba
• Chan, Yi-Hao
• Carissimo, Guillaume
• Teo, Louis Ly
• Gao, Fei
• Tan, Ru San
• Zhong, Liang
• Koh, Angela S
• Tan, Seow-Yen
• Tambyah, Paul A
• Renia, Laurent
• Ng, Lisa Fp
• Lye, David C
• Cheung, Christine

Titel

Convalescent COVID-19 patients are susceptible to endothelial dysfunction due to persistent immune activation

Ist Teil von

• eLife, 2021-03, Vol.10

Ort / Verlag

England: eLife Science Publications, Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Numerous reports of vascular events after an initial recovery from COVID-19 form our impetus to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on vascular health of recovered patients. We found elevated levels of circulating endothelial cells (CECs), a biomarker of vascular injury, in COVID-19 convalescents compared to healthy controls. In particular, those with pre-existing conditions (e.g., hypertension, diabetes) had more pronounced endothelial activation hallmarks than non-COVID-19 patients with matched cardiovascular risk. Several proinflammatory and activated T lymphocyte-associated cytokines sustained from acute infection to recovery phase, which correlated positively with CEC measures, implicating cytokine-driven endothelial dysfunction. Notably, we found higher frequency of effector T cells in our COVID-19 convalescents compared to healthy controls. The activation markers detected on CECs mapped to counter receptors found primarily on cytotoxic CD8 T cells, raising the possibility of cytotoxic effector cells targeting activated endothelial cells. Clinical trials in preventive therapy for post-COVID-19 vascular complications may be needed.