Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32764665›Full record

ArticleNature communications2020

Single-cell analysis of two severe COVID-19 patients reveals a monocyte-associated and tocilizumab-responding cytokine storm.

Chuang Guo, Bin Li, Huan Ma, Xiaofang Wang, Pengfei Cai, Qiaoni Yu, Lin Zhu, Liying Jin, Chen Jiang, Jingwen Fang and 14 more

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 149 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
149citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
4.8field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

149 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 219 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Trial
  5. Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Article
  8. Monocytes in pneumonia: Functional plasticity and innate memory (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2026
    Review
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. The CD38Frontiers in immunology · 2025
    Article
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  15. Article
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  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Cell-cell communication: new insights and clinical implications.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2024
    Review
  20. Article

89 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

24 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Chuang Guo *Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3912-0793
Bin Li *Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Huan MaDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Xiaofang WangDepartment of Hepatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Pengfei CaiDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Qiaoni YuDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Lin ZhuDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Liying JinDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Chen JiangDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Jingwen FangHanGene Biotech, Xiaoshan Innovation Polis, 31200, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Qian LiuDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Dandan ZongDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Wen ZhangDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Yichen LuDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Kun LiDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6550-4937
Xuyuan GaoDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Binqing FuDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Lianxin LiuDepartment of Hepatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Xiaoling MaDepartment of Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230001, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Jianping WengDepartment of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences of Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China.
Haiming WeiDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1675-6502
Tengchuan JinDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China. jint@ustc.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1395-188X
Jun LinDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China. linjun7@ustc.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7087-6540
Kun QuDepartment of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Molecular Medicine, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, 230021, Hefei, Anhui, China. qukun@ustc.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5555-8437
University of Science and Technology of China · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Several studies show that the immunosuppressive drugs targeting the interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor, including tocilizumab, ameliorate lethal inflammatory responses in COVID-19 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Here, by employing single-cell analysis of the immune cell composition of two severe-stage COVID-19 patients prior to and following tocilizumab-induced remission, we identify a monocyte subpopulation that contributes to the inflammatory cytokine storms. Furthermore, although tocilizumab treatment attenuates the inflammation, immune cells, including plasma B cells and CD8

Indexed as

Antibodies, Monoclonal, HumanizedBetacoronavirusB-LymphocytesCD8-Positive T-LymphocytesComputational BiologyCoronavirus InfectionsCOVID-19CytokinesHumansInflammationMacrophagesMonocytesPandemicsPneumonia, ViralReceptors, Interleukin-6SARS-CoV-2Antibodies, Monoclonal, HumanizedCytokinesIL6R protein, humanReceptors, Interleukin-6tocilizumab

Identifiers

PMID32764665
PMCPMC7413381
OpenAlexW3047549677

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.