Neutrophils predominate the immune signature of cerebral thrombi in COVID-19 stroke patients.
Acta Neuropathol Commun
; 10(1): 14, 2022 02 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35105380
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with an increased risk of thrombotic events. Ischemic stroke in COVID-19 patients entails high severity and mortality rates. Here we aimed to analyze cerebral thrombi of COVID-19 patients with large vessel occlusion (LVO) acute ischemic stroke to expose molecular evidence for SARS-CoV-2 in the thrombus and to unravel any peculiar immune-thrombotic features. We conducted a systematic pathological analysis of cerebral thrombi retrieved by endovascular thrombectomy in patients with LVO stroke infected with COVID-19 (n = 7 patients) and non-covid LVO controls (n = 23). In thrombi of COVID-19 patients, the SARS-CoV-2 docking receptor ACE2 was mainly expressed in monocytes/macrophages and showed higher expression levels compared to controls. Using polymerase chain reaction and sequencing, we detected SARS-CoV-2 Clade20A, in the thrombus of one COVID-19 patient. Comparing thrombus composition of COVID-19 and control patients, we noted no overt differences in terms of red blood cells, fibrin, neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), von Willebrand Factor (vWF), platelets and complement complex C5b-9. However, thrombi of COVID-19 patients showed increased neutrophil density (MPO+ cells) and a three-fold higher Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (tNLR). In the ROC analysis both neutrophils and tNLR had a good discriminative ability to differentiate thrombi of COVID-19 patients from controls. In summary, cerebral thrombi of COVID-19 patients can harbor SARS-CoV2 and are characterized by an increased neutrophil number and tNLR and higher ACE2 expression. These findings suggest neutrophils as the possible culprit in COVID-19-related thrombosis.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Isquemia Encefálica
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Acidente Vascular Cerebral
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Trombose Intracraniana
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COVID-19
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Imunidade Celular
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Neutrófilos
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Aged
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Aged80
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Female
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Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Acta Neuropathol Commun
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Itália