Plasma cytokine measurements using Luminex in COVID-19 patients

Dexamethasone is the standard of care for critically ill patients with
COVID-19, but its immunological effects in this setting and the mechanisms
by which it decreases mortality are not understood. We performed bulk and
single-cell RNA sequencing of the lower respiratory tract and blood, and
plasma cytokine profiling to study the effect of dexamethasone on systemic
and pulmonary immune cells. We find signatures of decreased viral injury,
antigen presentation, and T cell recruitment in patients treated with
dexamethasone. We identify compartment- and cell- specific differences in
the effect of dexamethasone in patients with severe COVID that are
reproducible in publicly available datasets. Our results highlight the
importance of studying compartmentalized inflammation in critically ill
patients.