A new study conducted by scientists at the HSS Research Institute identifies a mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 induces the inflammatory response in the lungs of patients with COVID-19, the so-called “cytokine storm”, which can lead to damage to durable tissues and poor patient outcomes. The main researcher Dr. Franck J. Barrat and Dr. Lionel B. Ivashkiv of the Hospital for Special Surgery worked in collaboration with Drs. Olivier Elemento and Robert E. Schwartz of Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) in this study, analyzing lung tissue and bronchoalveolar lavage samples from patients with COVID-19.
In a study published Sept. 9 in Science Immunology, researchers describe what controls the cytokine storm through macrophages that infiltrate the lungs, since these cells are not efficiently infected by SARS-CoV-2.
The researchers found that a type of immune cell, called plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC), is infected by SARS-CoV-2 and produces interferons that can cause epigenetic changes in macrophages near the patients’ lungs. Therefore, this priming of macrophages by interferons leads to their exacerbated response to environmental stimuli, inducing the cytokine storm in the lungs of patients with COVID-19.
This is surprising, as interferons and pDCs have been shown to protect patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, but this new research finds that they can also trigger damaging cytokine storms.
There is still much we do not know about the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and why macrophages can produce these cytokine storms that can have such dramatic consequences for patients. We hope this research will bring us closer to that understanding and lead to better treatment options for patients with severe COVID-19.”
Dr. Franck J. Barrat, Michael R. Bloomberg President, Hospital for Special Surgery; Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine
This work was supported by a grant from the HSS Research Institute to study the role of pDCs in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2, as well as grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Research Foundation of Scleroderma, the Scleroderma Foundation, the Starr Cancer Consortium, the Irma Hirschl Trust Research Award, and the Tow Foundation.
Source:
Hospital of Special Surgery