The phenotypic changes of ?d T cells in COVID-19 patients

Lei Lei; Hongbo Qian; Xiaofeng Yang; Xiaobo Zhou; Xingzhe Zhang; Dan Zhang; Tongxin Dai; Rui Guo; Lin Shi; Yanbin Cheng; Baojun Zhang; Jinsong Hu Hu; Yaling Guo

To demonstrate how γ δ T cells behave upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, we analyzed the PBMC samples from 38 patients and focused on the characterization of γ δ T cell phenotypes. We showed that upon infection, the percentage of γ δ T cells in the peripheral blood isolated from COVID-19 patients was drastically decreased when compared with healthy donors ( Figure 1A ). Although in the acute or early stages of other viral infections， the percentage of γ δ T cells increased, we observed a decrease of γ δ T cells in symptomatic patients. This might be explained that various types of virus impact γ δ T cells in different ways. It is likely that γ δ T cell response, including proliferation and cellularity, is dependent on the specific types of viral infections. It is also possible that most patients in this study showed mild symptom besides fever, as opposed to serious illness featuring pneumonia.