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TY - JOUR TI - Convalescent COVID-19 patients are susceptible to endothelial dysfunction due to persistent immune activation AU - Chioh, Florence WJ AU - Fong, Siew-Wai AU - Young, Barnaby E AU - Wu, Kan-Xing AU - Siau, Anthony AU - Krishnan, Shuba AU - Chan, Yi-Hao AU - Carissimo, Guillaume AU - Teo, Louis LY AU - Gao, Fei AU - Tan, Ru San AU - Zhong, Liang AU - Koh, Angela S AU - Tan, Seow-Yen AU - Tambyah, Paul A AU - Renia, Laurent AU - Ng, Lisa FP AU - Lye, David C AU - Cheung, Christine A2 - Emoto, Noriaki A2 - Barton, Matthias A2 - Coccheri, Sergio A2 - Ackermann, Maximilian VL - 10 PY - 2021 DA - 2021/03/23 SP - e64909 C1 - eLife 2021;10:e64909 DO - 10.7554/eLife.64909 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64909 AB - Numerous reports of vascular events after an initial recovery from COVID-19 form our impetus to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on vascular health of recovered patients. We found elevated levels of circulating endothelial cells (CECs), a biomarker of vascular injury, in COVID-19 convalescents compared to healthy controls. In particular, those with pre-existing conditions (e.g., hypertension, diabetes) had more pronounced endothelial activation hallmarks than non-COVID-19 patients with matched cardiovascular risk. Several proinflammatory and activated T lymphocyte-associated cytokines sustained from acute infection to recovery phase, which correlated positively with CEC measures, implicating cytokine-driven endothelial dysfunction. Notably, we found higher frequency of effector T cells in our COVID-19 convalescents compared to healthy controls. The activation markers detected on CECs mapped to counter receptors found primarily on cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, raising the possibility of cytotoxic effector cells targeting activated endothelial cells. Clinical trials in preventive therapy for post-COVID-19 vascular complications may be needed. KW - COVID-19 KW - circulating endothelial cells KW - cytokines KW - endothelial activation KW - immune effector cells JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -

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