T Cell Deficiency Clinical Trial
Official title:
Functional Exhaustion of T Cells in COVID19 Patients
The primary end-point of our prospective, observational study is to count T cells in patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and healthy controls. In addition, the expression of T cell exhaustion marker was measured in COVID-19 cases.
COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has posed great threat to human health. T cells play a critical role in antiviral immunity but their numbers and functional state in COVID-19 patients remain largely unclear. The immune response against viral infections depends on the activation of cytotoxic T cells that can clear infection by killing virus-infected cells, so boosting the numbers and function of T cells in COVID-19 patients is critical for successful recovery. However, the factors which might cause the reduction in count, and the activation status of T cells in COVID-19 patients, remain uninvestigated. Thus demonstration of T cell exhaustion during COVID-19 infection suggest that more urgent, early intervention may be required in patients with low T lymphocyte counts. ;