ArticleThe Journal of experimental medicine2020
Neutrophil extracellular traps infiltrate the lung airway, interstitial, and vascular compartments in severe COVID-19.
Article in The Journal of experimental medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 235 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
235 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 370 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ascertaining the mechanistic etiology of COVID-associated glomerulonephritis: a systematic review.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Prognostic value of von Willebrand factor and ADAMTS13 in patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Thrombosis research · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic review on neutrophil extracellular traps and its prognostication role in COVID-19 patients.Immunologic research · 2022Pooled it
- Biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction and outcomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Microvascular research · 2021Pooled it
- Role of Neutrophils on the Ocular Surface.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Invasive mould disease in fatal COVID-19: a systematic review of autopsies.The Lancet. Microbe · 2021Pooled it
- Shared inflammatory pathways and therapeutic strategies in COVID-19 and cancer immunotherapy.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2021Pooled it
- Autopsy Tool in Unknown Diseases: The Experience with Coronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2).Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trial
- A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of intravenous alpha-1 antitrypsin for ARDS secondary to COVID-19.Med (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Trial
- A functionally distinct neutrophil landscape in severe COVID-19 reveals opportunities for adjunctive therapies.JCI insight · 2022Trial
- Systemic atopy and upper-airway disease define susceptibility to incident asthma after COVID-19 in Korea.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Airway mucins function as endogenous inhibitors of neutrophil extracellular traps.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Establishment of a chronic aspiration pneumonia mouse model using oropharyngeal aspiration of food suspension.Animal models and experimental medicine · 2026Article
- Review
- Neutrophil extracellular traps are found at epithelial barriers in canine sinonasal aspergillosis.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Training the Lung, Taming the NETs.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Roles of peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) and protein citrullination in viral infections.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
175 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Infection with SARS-CoV-2 is causing a deadly and pandemic disease called coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). While SARS-CoV-2-triggered hyperinflammatory tissue-damaging and immunothrombotic responses are thought to be major causes of respiratory failure and death, how they relate to lung immunopathological changes remains unclear. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) can contribute to inflammation-associated lung damage, thrombosis, and fibrosis. However, whether NETs infiltrate particular compartments in severe COVID-19 lungs remains to be clarified. Here we analyzed postmortem lung specimens from four patients who succumbed to COVID-19 and four patients who died from a COVID-19-unrelated cause. We report the presence of NETs in the lungs of each COVID-19 patient. NETs were found in the airway compartment and neutrophil-rich inflammatory areas of the interstitium, while NET-prone primed neutrophils were present in arteriolar microthrombi. Our results support the hypothesis that NETs may represent drivers of severe pulmonary complications of COVID-19 and suggest that NET-targeting approaches could be considered for the treatment of uncontrolled tissue-damaging and thrombotic responses in COVID-19.
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Registered trials
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.