Understanding respiratory and systemic immune responses during COVID-19: Implications for prediction of disease severity (Studier av immunsvar i luftvägar och lungor för att förstå vad som dikterar sjukdomsgrad vid COVID-19)

This proposal aims to dissect what immune parameters dictate COVID-19 disease severity. We propose that disease severity during SARS-CoV-2 infection is linked to the magnitude and type of immune response mounted to the virus, and that this is dictated by the initial local immune response at the site of infection. A unique aspect of our work is that we sample and study the airways, affected in almost all COVID-19 patients but largely understudied, as well as blood. We have studied patients with influenza-like symptoms or confirmed respiratory virus infection for many years and have the infrastructure in place along with expertise and established methods to conduct high resolution immunological analyses to study COVID-19 pathogenesis. Also, samples from patients with other respiratory viral infections provide important and clinically relevant reference material to dissect what is unique with COVID-19. We have established an invaluable biobank of patient material from multiple anatomical locations. Importantly, we have already identified potential therapy targets in altered innate immune cell frequency and function in COVID-19 patients compared to influenza patients, that correlates with disease severity.To make us better prepared to handle this and future outbreaks in a systematic, scientific way, productive collaborations between clinical and basic scientists like ours are critical to shorten the distance between experimental discovery and clinical implementation. Immunologi inom det medicinska området, Infektionsmedicin, Mikrobiologi inom det medicinska området