Immune dysfunction leads to mortality and organ injury in patients with COVID-19 in China: insights from ERS-COVID-19 study
Dongze Li, You Chen, Hong Liu, Yu Jia, Fanghui Li, Wei Wang, Jiang Wu, Zhi Wan, Yu Cao & Rui Zeng
Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy volume 5, Article number: 62 (2020)
A series of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) since the end of 2019 is ongoing and triggering a global public health crisis. The estimated case fatality rate is approximately 3.4% in China. However, some patients experience dyspnea within 1 week and develop rapidly to organ injury and even death within 2 weeks after dyspnea.1 In addition, early organ injury could lead to higher risks of mortality. Thus, early identification of patients at risk of organ injury and death is crucial, which saves the patients from classified and invasive treatment, improving clinical outcome and prognosis. The human immune system plays significant roles in the resistance of foreign pathogens and the progress of pneumonia.