RESEARCH ARTICLE

A human circulating immune cell landscape in aging and COVID-19

  • Yingfeng Zheng 1 ,
  • Xiuxing Liu 1 ,
  • Wenqing Le 4 ,
  • Lihui Xie 1 ,
  • He Li 1 ,
  • Wen Wen 3 ,
  • Si Wang 2,6,7,8 ,
  • Shuai Ma 2,6,7 ,
  • Zhaohao Huang 1 ,
  • Jinguo Ye 1 ,
  • Wen Shi 1 ,
  • Yanxia Ye 5 ,
  • Zunpeng Liu 5,7 ,
  • Moshi Song 2,6,7 ,
  • Weiqi Zhang 6,7,9,10 ,
  • Jing-Dong J. Han 11 ,
  • Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte 12 ,
  • Chuanle Xiao 1 ,
  • Jing Qu , 5,6,7 ,
  • Hongyang Wang , 3 ,
  • Guang-Hui Liu , 2,6,7,8 ,
  • Wenru Su , 1
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  • 1. State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510060, China
  • 2. State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  • 3. National Center for Liver Cancer, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • 4. Department of Critical Care, Wuhan Hankou Hospital, Wuhan 430012, China
  • 5. State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  • 6. Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
  • 7. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 8. Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xuanwu Hospital Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
  • 9. CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  • 10. China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing 100101, China
  • 11. Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Center for Quantitative Biology (CQB), Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 12. Gene Expression Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA

Received date: 22 Jun 2020

Accepted date: 01 Jul 2020

Published date: 15 Oct 2020

Copyright

2020 The Author(s) 2020

Abstract

Age-associated changes in immune cells have been linked to an increased risk for infection. However, a global and detailed characterization of the changes that human circulating immune cells undergo with age is lacking. Here, we combined scRNA-seq, mass cytometry and scATAC-seq to compare immune cell types in peripheral blood collected from young and old subjects and patients with COVID-19. We found that the immune cell landscape was reprogrammed with age and was characterized by T cell polarization from naive and memory cells to effector, cytotoxic, exhausted and regulatory cells, along with increased late natural killer cells, age-associated B cells, inflammatory monocytes and age-associated dendritic cells. In addition, the expression of genes, which were implicated in coronavirus susceptibility, was upregulated in a cell subtypespecific manner with age. Notably, COVID-19 promoted age-induced immune cell polarization and gene expression related to inflammation and cellular senescence. Therefore, these findings suggest that a dysregulated immune system and increased gene expression associated with SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility may at least partially account for COVID-19 vulnerability in the elderly.

Cite this article

Yingfeng Zheng , Xiuxing Liu , Wenqing Le , Lihui Xie , He Li , Wen Wen , Si Wang , Shuai Ma , Zhaohao Huang , Jinguo Ye , Wen Shi , Yanxia Ye , Zunpeng Liu , Moshi Song , Weiqi Zhang , Jing-Dong J. Han , Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte , Chuanle Xiao , Jing Qu , Hongyang Wang , Guang-Hui Liu , Wenru Su . A human circulating immune cell landscape in aging and COVID-19[J]. Protein & Cell, 2020 , 11(10) : 740 -770 . DOI: 10.1007/s13238-020-00762-2

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