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. 2020 Sep 15:346:577323.
doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2020.577323. Epub 2020 Jul 15.

The peripheral blood immune cell profile in a teriflunomide-treated multiple sclerosis patient with COVID-19 pneumonia

Maria Rosa Ciardi  1 , Maria Antonella Zingaropoli  2 , Patrizia Pasculli  1 , Valentina Perri  1 , Matteo Tartaglia  3 , Serena Valeri  1 , Gianluca Russo  1 , Antonella Conte  4 , Claudio Maria Mastroianni  1
Affiliations

The peripheral blood immune cell profile in a teriflunomide-treated multiple sclerosis patient with COVID-19 pneumonia

Maria Rosa Ciardi et al. J Neuroimmunol. .

Abstract

A teriflunomide-treated multiple sclerosis patient with COVID-19 pneumonia was hospitalized and recovered in 15 days. The immunophenotyping analysis of peripheral blood cells was performed in two time points: the first was 1 month before (pre-infection) while the second was during COVID-19 pneumonia (infection). At the infection time point, no differences in the percentages of immune activation and immunesenescence of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells were observed compared to the pre-infection time point. Our evaluation seems to confirm that teriflunomide controls T-cells immune activation and immunosenescence suggesting that teriflunomide should not be discontinued in MS patients with an active COVID-19 pneumonia.

Keywords: COVID-19; Disease-modifying therapies; Flow cytometry.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest All the authors report no disclosures relevant to the manuscript.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(A) Gating strategy for flow cytometry immunophenotyping analysis (a) After gating for single cells in forward scatter area (FSC-A) versus height (FSC-H) and side scatter area (SSC-A) versus height (SSC-H) plots, polymorphonuclear cells and lympho-monocytes were identified in FSC-A SSC-A plot. In the lympho-monocyte gate, NK, NKT and T cells were defined according to CD3 and CD56. After gating for CD3 + CD56- lymphocytes, CD3 + CD4+ and CD3 + CD8+ cells were identified. Immune activated T-cells were defined as HLA-DR + CD38+ while immunosenescent T-cells as CD28-CD57+. Maturation T-cell subsets were defined as follows: naïve (N, CD45RO-CD27+) central memory (CM, CD45RO + CD27+), effector memory (EM, CD45RO + CD27-) and effector (E, CD45RO-CD27-) cells. Only for CD3 + CD8+ T-lymphocytes we identified an intermediate maturation subset (I, CD27lowCD45RO-). After gating for NK cells as CD3-CD56+, NK maturation subsets were defined according to CD56 and CD16 expression as CD56bright, CD56dim. In the lympho-monocyte gate, after exclusion of CD56 + CD14- cells and HLA-DR-CD14- cells, monocyte maturation subsets were defined according to CD14 and CD16 expression as atypical monocytes (CD14-CD16+), intermediate monocytes (CD14 + CD16+), and classical monocytes (CD14 + CD16-). (B) Evaluation of immunophenotyping analysis at the two time points. A representative healthy donor (HD) matched for sex and age is reported.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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