Comparison between non-pulmonary and pulmonary immune responses in a HIV decedent who succumbed to COVID-19.

We read with interest the study by Manuel et al showing that chronic immunosuppression could protect against severe COVID-19 in liver transplant patients.1 Despite increased comorbidities, COVID-19 in liver transplant patients was not more severe than in non-transplant cohorts.1 2 We present findings from a COVID-19/HIV coinfected decedent who exhibited a significantly longer survival time (46 days) than that of three COVID-19 decedents (average 30 days) (figure 1A). Given the immunosuppressive effects of HIV,3 the prolonged survival of our COVID-19/HIV patient may reflect protection from severe COVID-19. Figure 1 Increased myeloid and reduced T-cell abundance characterises the liver and kidney but not the lungs of a COVID-19/HIV decedent. (A) Kaplan-Meier survival curve of COVID-19/HIV case (nCOVID-19/HIV = 1) and COVID-19 cases (nCOVID-19=3). P-value: Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. (B) Representative regions of interest (ROI) of the liver, kidney, and lung from the COVID-19/HIV decedent and one COVID-19 decedent. (C) Principal component analyses of transcriptional profiles of COVID-19/HIV and COVID-19 decedents from ROIs of the lung (nCOVID-19/HIV = 11, nCOVID-19=29), liver (nCOVID-19/HIV = 10, nCOVID-19=32), and kidney (nCOVID-19/HIV = 11, nCOVID-19=8). (D) Relative estimated levels of immune cells determined by deconvolution of digital spatial profiling ROIs using CIBERSORTx (https://cibersort.stanford.edu/). Grey bars indicate the means. P-values were calculated by a two-tailed t -test: *(<0.05), **(<0.01), \***|(<0.001), \**\*|\*(<0.0001), ns (not significant). (E) Comparison of the abundance of various immune cell populations between ROIs of the COVID-19/HIV decedent and COVID-19 decedents by multiplex immunohistochemistry. P-values were calculated by a two-tailed U-test: *(<0.05), ns …