Immunological characterization and comparison of children with COVID-19 from their adult counterparts at single-cell resolution.

The immunological characteristics that could protect children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from severe or fatal illnesses have not been fully understood yet. Here, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis on peripheral blood samples of 15 children (8 with COVID-19) and compared them to 18 adults (13 with COVID-19). The child-adult integrated single cell data indicated that children with the disease presented a restrained response to type I interferon in most of the major immune cell types, along with suppression of upstream interferon regulatory factor and toll-like receptor expression in monocytes, which was confirmed by Conclusively, this preliminary study revealed distinct cell frequency and activation status of major immune cell types, particularly more robust NK cell cytotoxicity in PBMC that might help protect children from severe COVID-19.

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Copyright © 2024 Jia, Li, Hu, Chang, Zeng, Liu, Lu, Xu, Zhai, Qian and Xu.

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The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.