Mucosal Associated Invariant T (MAIT) Cell Responses Differ by Sex in COVID-19.
Abstract
Sexual dimorphisms in immune responses contribute to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
outcomes, yet the mechanisms governing this disparity remain incompletely understood.
We carried out sex-balanced sampling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from confirmed
COVID-19 inpatients and outpatients, uninfected close contacts, and healthy controls
for 36-color flow cytometry and single cell RNA-sequencing. Our results revealed a
pronounced reduction of circulating mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells in
infected females. Integration of published COVID-19 airway tissue datasets implicate
that this reduction represented a major wave of MAIT cell extravasation during early
infection in females. Moreover, female MAIT cells possessed an immunologically active
gene signature, whereas male counterparts were pro-apoptotic. Collectively, our findings
uncover a female-specific protective MAIT profile, potentially shedding light on reduced
COVID-19 susceptibility in females.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22841Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.medj.2021.04.008Publication Info
(2021). Mucosal Associated Invariant T (MAIT) Cell Responses Differ by Sex in COVID-19. Med (New York, N.Y.). 10.1016/j.medj.2021.04.008. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22841.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Thomas Burke
Manager, Systems Project
Thomas Norton Denny
Professor in Medicine
Thomas N. Denny, MSc, M.Phil, is the Chief Operating Officer of the Duke Human Vaccine
Institute (DHVI) and the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI), and a Professor
of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. He is
also an Affiliate Member of the Duke Global Health Institute. He has recently been
appointed to the Duke University Fuqua School of Business Health Sector Advisory Council.
Previously, he was an Associate Professor of Pathology, Laboratory M
Emily Ray Ko
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Clinical and translational research, COVID-19 therapeutics, clinical biomarkers for
infectious disease, hospitalist
Micah Thomas McClain
Associate Professor of Medicine
Daniel Raphael Saban
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology
Gregory David Sempowski
Professor in Medicine
Dr. Sempowski earned his PhD in Immunology from the University of Rochester and was
specifically trained in the areas of inflammation, wound healing, and host response
(innate and adaptive). Dr. Sempowski contributed substantially to the field of lung
inflammation and fibrosis defining the roles of pulmonary fibroblast heterogeneity
and CD40/CD40L signaling in regulating normal and pathogenic lung inflammation. During
his postdoctoral training with Dr. Barton F. H
Xiling Shen
Hawkins Family Associate Professor
Dr. Shen’s research interests lie at precision medicine and systems biology. His lab
integrates engineering, computational and biological techniques to study cancer, stem
cells, microbiota and the nervous system in the gut. This multidisciplinary work has
been instrumental in initiating several translational clinical trials in precision
therapy. He is the director of the Woo Center for Big Data and Precision Health (DAP)
and a core member of the Center for Genomics and Computational Biolog
This author no longer has a Scholars@Duke profile, so the information shown here reflects
their Duke status at the time this item was deposited.
Ephraim Tsalik
Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine
My research is focused on understanding the dynamic between host and pathogen so as
to discover and develop host-response markers that can diagnose and predict health
and disease. This new and evolving approach to diagnosing illness has the potential
to significantly impact individual as well as public health considering the rise of
antibiotic resistance.
With any potential infectious disease diagnosis, it is difficult, if not impossible,
to determine at the time of presentation
Christopher Wildrick Woods
Professor of Medicine
1. Emerging Infections 2. Global Health 3. Epidemiology of infectious diseases
4. Clinical microbiology and diagnostics 5. Bioterrorism Preparedness 6. Surveillance
for communicable diseases 7. Antimicrobial resistance
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