Disease

Pathogenesis

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Pandemic

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak

Immunology

Coronavirus

Medicine

Betacoronavirus

Cytokine

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Outbreak

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Virology

Cytokine storm

Immune system

Pathology

EBioMedicine

The pathogenesis of pandemic coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) likely depends heavily on disruption of immune and inflammatory processes. Thus far, the precise immune mechanisms have not been fully elucidated or studied in detail. In this issue of EBioMedicine, Liu and colleagues [[1]Liu J. Li S. Liu J. Liang B. Wang X. Wang H. et al.Longitudinal characteristics of lymphocyte responses and cytokine profiles in the peripheral blood of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients.EBioMedicine. 2020; 55102763Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (1114) Google Scholar] showed that patients with severe COVID-19 had lymphopenia and increased neutrophil counts along with high levels of circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines compared to patients with mild COVID-19 illness. The investigators used flow cytometry to investigate immune phenotype and function of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), as well as quantified plasma cytokine levels, from 40 COVID-1...

A glimpse into the eye of the COVID-19 cytokine storm