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Review
. 2021 Jan-Dec:17:17455065211022262.
doi: 10.1177/17455065211022262.

Immune system and COVID-19 by sex differences and age

Tiziana Ciarambino  1 , Ombretta Para  2 , Mauro Giordano  3
Affiliations
Review

Immune system and COVID-19 by sex differences and age

Tiziana Ciarambino et al. Womens Health (Lond). 2021 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

In COVID-19 disease, are reported gender differences in relation to severity and death. The aim of this review is to highlight gender differences in the immune response to COVID-19. The included studies were identified using PubMed, until 30 October 2020. The search included the following keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, gender, age, sex, and immune system. Literature described that females compared to males have greater inflammatory, antiviral, and humoral immune responses. In female, estrogen is a potential ally to alleviate SARS-COV-2 disease. In male, testosterone reduces vaccination response and depresses the cytokine response. In the older patients, and in particular, in female older patients, it has been reported a progressive functional decline in the immune systems. Differences by gender were reported in infection diseases, including SARS-CoV-2. These data should be confirmed by the other epidemiological studies.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; age; aging; gender; immune system; sex; vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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