SARS-CoV-2 Studies

National Institute Of Environmental Health Sciences

Investigators

Abstract

Smoking, Immune Senescence and COVID-19 morbidity. The general approach is to prospectively establish a bank of cryopreserved PBMCs from smokers and nonsmokers before any COVID-19 exposure or prior to COVID-19 vaccination and to use CyTOF and single cell RNAseq to analyze detailed immune cell type profiles. Subjects will return for second post-COVID-19/vaccine visit to provide a second blood sample for analysis. The focus is primarily on immune profiles compared with COVID-19 incidence (or antibody levels in vaccinated volunteers) in smokers. There is a large variance in CD16+CD8+ T cell frequency among smokers. We hypothesize that senescent CD16+CD8+ T cells will be higher in smokers who develop COVID-19 or who have more severe morbidity. Conversely the vaccine provoked, protective COVID-19 antibody response may be lower in smokers with senescent CD8 T cells. Specific Aims and Experimental Plans Specific Aim 1. Establish CyTOF immune profiles in 40 smokers and 40 matched nonsmokers who are COVID-19 negative, or prevaccine. These individuals will be follow for 6 months and recalled post COVID-19 disease or post vaccination. Specific Aim 2. Compare immune profiles determined from a post-COVID-19 visit to the pre-COVID-19/prevaccinated sample. Sample collection is still in progress.