PBMC single cell transcriptomics of COVID-19 patients

The COVID-19 is a mild to moderate respiratory tract infection in the majority, but also can cause life-threatening respiratory failure or persistent debilitating symptoms in a subset of patients. However, the mechanism of protective immunity in mild cases and the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19 remain unclear. On the other hand, it has been proposed that the potent anti-inflammatory effects of corticosteroids are beneficial to decrease the fatality rate in severe COVID-19 patients but its specific mechanism is still in debate. We have investigated PBMC single cell whole transcriptome analysis of COVID-19 patients. Considering the drastic variation of symptoms, we proposed massive prospective as well as retrospective cohort designs in three independent medical centers in South Korea. In a total of 171 precious clinal samples, we aimed to determine immune cell composition and molecular changes in 1) patient groups of different disease severity, 2) longitudinal analysis of patients during the disease progress, 3) the functional analysis of corticosteroid treatment at the single cell resolution. ***Raw data not available due to patient privacy concerns***