?:abstract
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Summary The pandemic COVID-19 disease shares certain clinical characteristics with other acute viral infections We studied the whole-blood transcriptomic host response to SARS-CoV-2 using RNAseq from 24 healthy controls and 62 prospectively enrolled patients with COVID-19 We then compared these data to non-COVID-19 viral infections, curated from 23 independent studies profiling 1,855 blood samples covering six viruses (influenza, RSV, HRV, Ebola, Dengue, SARS-CoV-1) We show gene expression changes in COVID-19 versus non-COVID-19 viral infections are highly correlated (r=0 74, p<0 001) However, we also found 416 genes specific to COVID-19 Inspection of top genes revealed dynamic immune evasion and counter host responses specific to COVID-19 Statistical deconvolution of cell proportions maps many cell type proportions concordantly shifting Discordantly increased in COVID-19 were CD56bright NK cells and M2 macrophages The concordant and discordant responses mapped out here provide a window to explore the pathophysiology of the host response to SARS-CoV-2
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