Immune Characteristics of Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Up to now, little is known about the detailed immune profiles of COVID-19 patients from admission to discharge. In this study we retrospectively reviewed the clinical and laboratory characteristics of 18 COVID-19 patients from January 30, 2020 to February 21, 2020. These patients were divided into two groups; group 1 had a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 nucleic acid-positive duration for more than 15 days (n = 6) and group 2 had a nucleic acid-positive duration for less than 15 days (n = 12). Group 1 patients had lower level of peripheral blood lymphocytes (0.40 vs. 0.78 ×10⁹/L, p = 0.024) and serum potassium (3.36 vs. 3.79 mmol/L, p = 0.043) on admission but longer hospitalization days (23.17 vs. 15.75 days, p < 0.001) compared to Group 2 patients. Moreover, baseline level of lymphocytes (r = -0.62, p = 0.006) was negatively correlated with the nucleic acid-positive duration. Additionally, lymphocytes (420.83 vs. 1100.56 /μL), T cells (232.50 vs. 706.78 /μL), CD4⁺ T cells (114.67 vs. 410.44 /μL), and CD8⁺ T cells (94.83 vs. 257.44 /μL) in the peripheral blood analyzed by flow cytometry were significantly different between Group 1and Group 2. Furthermore, there was also a negative correlation between lymphocytes (r = -0.54, p = 0.038) or T cells (r = -0.55, p = 0.034) at diagnosis and the nucleic acid-positive duration, separately. In conclusion, the patients with nucleic acid-positive ≥ 15 days had significantly decreased lymphocytes, T cell and its subsets compared to those who remained positive for less than 15 days.