Summary
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic began in 2019 and rapidly scaled to a global presence of disease known as COVID-19. Despite the relatively fast implementation of testing and vaccination worldwide, the rise of emerging viral variants and breakthrough infections raises concerns that SARS-CoV-2 will continue to pose a global health threat — concerns that extend to other viral pathogens such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and the next novel human respiratory virus we will encounter.
COVID-19 shares similarities with other respiratory infections, yet we still have a limited understanding of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2. To better characterize the immune landscape of patients with severe COVID-19, a study led by Drs. Vick, Frutoso, Prlic, and Lund profiled hospitalized COVID-19 patients against those infected with influenza and RSV, plus healthy controls. To aid these characterizations, co-founders Evan Greene and Raphael Gottardo applied the computational methodology they developed — the precursor of Ozette’s technology — to conduct unbiased discovery and annotation of phenotypes in these single-cell immune data.
Deep immune profiling via FAUST revealed two key insights. First, the team observed similar circulating immune cells and similar phenotypic changes across respiratory infections, indicating that similar treatments might be effective across these viral infections. Second, there were key immune differentiators — including a SARS-CoV-2-specific signature composed of T-regulatory cells, previously uncharacterized using standard methodology. While additional studies are needed, these initial insights inform potential therapeutic strategies to limit severe COVID-19 disease.
