Metabolic stress and disease-stage specific basigin expression of peripheral blood immune cell subsets in COVID-19 patients

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is driven by dysregulated immune responses yet the role of immunometabolism in COVID-19 pathogenesis remains unclear. By investigating 47 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 16 uninfected controls, we found an immunometabolic dysregulation specific for patients with progressed disease that was reversible in the recovery phase. Specifically, T cells and monocytes exhibited increased mitochondrial mass, accumulated intracellular ROS and these changes were accompanied by disrupted mitochondrial architecture. Basigin (CD147), but not established markers of T cell activation, was up-regulated on T cells from progressed COVID-19 patients and correlated with ROS accumulation, reflected in the transcriptome. During recovery, basigin and ROS decreased to match the uninfected controls. In vitro analyses confirmed the correlation and showed a down-regulation of ROS by dexamethasone treatment. Our findings provide evidence of a basigin-related and reversible immunometabolic dysregulation in COVID-19.