ArticleFrontiers in immunology2025
Long donor leukocyte telomeres raise risk of severe COVID-19 in recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant.
Article in Frontiers in immunology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Introduction: Short leukocyte telomeres are associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 in the general population, likely due to a weakened T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2. This may lead to an amplified neutrophil response, causing pulmonary damage. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) offers an experimental setting to examine further the role of telomere length (TL) in COVID-19 severity, as leukocyte TL in recipients post-HCT reflects TL in donor leukocytes before HCT and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: We examined the relationship between donor leukocyte TL pre-HCT and COVID-19 severity post-HCT in 87 HCT recipients hospitalized for COVID-19 between March 2020 and January 2022. Using the Telomere Shortest Length Assay (TeSLA), we measured leukocyte TL and the percentage of telomeres shorter than 3 kilobases. Results: The risk of severe COVID-19 in HCT recipients was associated with long telomeres (P=0.005) and a lower percentage of telomeres shorter than 3 kilobases (P=0.01) in donor leukocytes. Moreover, long donor leukocyte telomeres were associated with an increased risk of recipient mortality within four months after COVID-19 hospitalization (P=0.03). Conclusions: These findings suggest that long donor leukocyte telomeres may trigger an excessive neutrophil response and severe COVID-19 in allogeneic HCT recipients, potentially due to a transplant-related but TL-independent weak T-cell response.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.