Central and effector memory T cells in peripheral blood of patients with interstitial pneumonia: preliminary clues from a COVID-19 study

SARS-CoV-2 pre-existing T-cell immune reactivity can be present in some people. A general perturbation of the main peripheral lymphocyte subsets has been described in severe COVID-19 patients, but very few studies assessed the general memory T-cell homeostasis in the acute phase of COVID-19. Here, we performed a general analysis of the main memory T cell populations in the peripheral blood of patients admitted to the hospital for a confirmed or probable COVID-19 diagnosis.

In this cross-sectional study, adult patients (aged ≥ 18 years) needing hospital admission for respiratory disease due to confirmed or probable COVID-19, were recruited before starting the therapeutic protocol for this disease. In addition to the assessment of the general lymphocyte subpopulations in the early phase of COVID-19, central memory T cells (Tm_centr cells: CD45RO+CCR7+) and effector memory T cells (Tm_eff cells: CD45RO+CCR7−) were assessed by multi-color flow cytometry, in comparison to a control group.

During the study period, 148 study participants were recruited. Among them, 58 patients turned out positive for SARS-CoV-2 PCR (including both patients with interstitial pneumonia [PCR+Pn+] and without this complication [PCR+Pn−]), whereas the remaining 90 patients resulted to be SARS-CoV-2 PCR negative, even though all were affected with interstitial pneumonia [PCR−Pn+]. Additionally, 28 control patients without any ongoing respiratory disease were recruited. A clear unbalance in the T memory compartment emerged from this analysis on the whole pool of T cells (CD3+ cells), showing a significant increase in Tm_centr cells and, conversely, a significant decrease in Tm_eff cells in both pneumonia groups (PCR+Pn+ and PCR−Pn+) compared to the controls; PCR+Pn− group showed trends comprised between patients with pneumonia (from one side) and the control group (from the other side). This perturbation inside the memory T cell compartment was also observed in the individual analysis of the four main T cell subpopulations, based upon the differential expression of CD4 and/or CD8 markers.

Overall, we observed both absolute and relative increases of Tm_centr cells and decrease of Tm_eff cells in patients affected with interstitial pneumonia (regardless of the positive or negative results of SARS-CoV-2 PCR), compared to controls. These results need confirmation from additional research, in order to consider this finding as a potential biological marker of interstitial lung involvement in patients affected with viral respiratory infections.