Two distinct immunopathological profiles in autopsy lungs of COVID-19

Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) is a respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has grown to a worldwide pandemic with substantial mortality. Immune mediated damage has been proposed as a pathogenic factor, but immune responses in lungs of COVID-19 patients remain poorly characterized. Therefore we conducted transcriptomic, histologic and cellular profiling of post mortem COVID-19 (n=34 tissues from 16 patients) and normal lung tissues (n=9 tissues from 6 patients). Two distinct immunopathological reaction patterns of lethal COVID-19 were identified. One pattern showed high local expression of interferon stimulated genes (ISG ^high ) and cytokines, high viral loads and limited pulmonary damage, the other pattern showed severely damaged lungs, low ISGs (ISG ^low ), low viral loads and abundant infiltrating activated CD8+ T cells and macrophages. ISG ^high patients died significantly earlier after hospitalization than ISG ^low patients. Our study may point to distinct stages of progression of COVID-19 lung disease and highlights the need for peripheral blood biomarkers that inform about patient lung status and guide treatment.