Frontiers in Immunology (May 2022)

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

  • 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

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.903498
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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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.

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