ArticleSignal transduction and targeted therapy2022
ACE2-independent infection of T lymphocytes by SARS-CoV-2.
Article in Signal transduction and targeted therapy, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 113 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
113 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 173 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of supplementation with nutrients and dietary supplements on recovery and inflammatory response among patients with COVID-19: a network meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic effects of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on pathogenesis: single-cell meta-analysis.mSphere · 2023Pooled it
- COVID-19 and the Immune Response: A Multi-Phasic Approach to the Treatment of COVID-19.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Increased respiratory pathogen positivity and diversity in hospitalized children following the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia.New microbes and new infections · 2026Article
- COVID-19 Is Airborne AIDS: Provocative Oversimplification, Emerging Science, or Something in Between?AJPM focus · 2026Review
- Programmable antibody-based chimeric entry receptors for sarbecoviruses.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Variant-divergent death: Omicron intensifies bystander T-cell apoptosis via GDF15-BCL2L13.Cell death discovery · 2026Article
- The macrophage entry mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 mediated by surface CD98/TMPRSS11E complex is associated with the cellular tropism toward proinflammatory M1 and pathogenesis.Respiratory research · 2026Article
- HLA-C-derived peptide MH-1 as an early-stage intervention against SARS-CoV-2 infection.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Review
- The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as a marker of immunosenescence and COVID-19 outcomes in the elderly: A narrative review.Physiological reports · 2026Review
- Beyond macrophages: FIPV tropism includes T and B lymphocytes.Veterinary microbiology · 2026Article
- In the shadow of COVID-19: changes in the seroprevalence of pediatric Mycoplasma pneumoniae.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Immune cell interactions and lung damage in SARS-CoV-2 special attention on monocytes/macrophages, T and B lymphocytes, dendritic cells and Toll-like receptors in SARS-CoV-2.American journal of clinical and experimental immunology · 2026Review
- Hypoxia: a critical pathophysiological driver in respiratory inflammatory diseases.Military Medical Research · 2026Review
- SARS-CoV-2-Induced Macrophage Polarization Reverses HIV-1 Latency in J-Lat Cells Through TNFα Signaling.Journal of immunology research · 2026Article
- Plasma proteomic signatures in HIV-infected individuals post-SARS-CoV-2 infection.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- A survey of SARS-CoV-2 tropism.Infectious diseases & immunity · 2025Review
- Molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 entry: implications for biomedical strategies.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
53 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
25 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 induced marked lymphopenia in severe patients with COVID-19. However, whether lymphocytes are targets of viral infection is yet to be determined, although SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen has been identified in T cells from patients. Here, we confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 viral antigen could be detected in patient peripheral blood cells (PBCs) or postmortem lung T cells, and the infectious virus could also be detected from viral antigen-positive PBCs. We next prove that SARS-CoV-2 infects T lymphocytes, preferably activated CD4 + T cells in vitro. Upon infection, viral RNA, subgenomic RNA, viral protein or viral particle can be detected in the T cells. Furthermore, we show that the infection is spike-ACE2/TMPRSS2-independent through using ACE2 knockdown or receptor blocking experiments. Next, we demonstrate that viral antigen-positive T cells from patient undergone pronounced apoptosis. In vitro infection of T cells induced cell death that is likely in mitochondria ROS-HIF-1a-dependent pathways. Finally, we demonstrated that LFA-1, the protein exclusively expresses in multiple leukocytes, is more likely the entry molecule that mediated SARS-CoV-2 infection in T cells, compared to a list of other known receptors. Collectively, this work confirmed a SARS-CoV-2 infection of T cells, in a spike-ACE2-independent manner, which shed novel insights into the underlying mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2-induced lymphopenia in COVID-19 patients.
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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.