Lower Respiratory Tract Myeloid Cells Harbor SARS-Cov-2 and Display an Inflammatory Phenotype.

To the Editor: Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia may induce an aberrant immune response with brisk recruitment of myeloid cells into the airspaces.[1] Although the clinical implications are unclear, others have suggested that infiltrating myeloid cells may contribute to morbidity and mortality rates during SARS-CoV-2 infection.[[1]] However, few reports have characterized myeloid cells from the lower respiratory tract, which appears to be the primary site of viral-induced disease, during severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. C, Comparison of endotracheal aspirate cells that co-expressed CD14 (14) or CD16 (16) with (N+) or without (N-) SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein in each sample (n=5 patients; patient 2 was removed due to low number of cells with nucleocapsid protein). [Extracted from the article]
Copyright of CHEST is the property of American College of Chest Physicians and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)