2021-05-10

Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China jialiu77@hust.edu.cn bjwang73@163.com.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Institute for Virology, University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Institute for Virology, University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Institute for Virology, University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Institute for Virology, Heinrich-Heine-University, University Hospital, Duesseldorf, Germany.; Institute for Virology, Heinrich-Heine-University, University Hospital, Duesseldorf, Germany.; Institute for Virology, Heinrich-Heine-University, University Hospital, Duesseldorf, Germany.; Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.; Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Institute for Virology, University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Institute for Virology, University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China jialiu77@hust.edu.cn bjwang73@163.com.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.; Joint International Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) affected over 120 million people and killed over 2.7 million individuals by March 2021. While acute and intermediate interactions between SARS-CoV-2 and the immune system have been studied extensively, long-term impacts on the cellular immune system remain to be analyzed. Here, we comprehensively characterized immunological changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in 49 COVID-19-convalescent individuals (CI) in comparison to 27 matched SARS-CoV-2-unexposed individuals (UI). Despite recovery from the disease for more than 2 months, CI showed significant decreases in frequencies of invariant NKT and NKT-like cells compared to UI. Concomitant with the decrease in NKT-like cells, an increase in the percentage of annexin V and 7-aminoactinomycin D (7-AAD) double-positive NKT-like cells was detected, suggesting that the reduction in NKT-like cells results from