Immune Profiling of COVID-19-infected Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU): the IMPROVISE Study

SARS-CoV-2 is the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019. This new coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China in late December 2019. According to WHO, the incidence rate of COVID-19 is prominent among adults and elderly people, reaching so far >2 million cases globally. Meanwhile, confirmed death cases reached >126 thousands of reported cases in 185 countries and still increasing. We anticipate that immunological differences among COVID19-infected patients might be a reason behind the variation of patient outcomes. Therefore, we intend to investigate cellular and humoral immune responses of COVID19-positive patients, and we claim to discover new indicators of patients' prognosis. Our target population includes three categories of patients staying at ICU, HMC (COVID19-positive vs. COVID19-negative vs. healthy control). Throughout their ICU stay, multiple blood samples will be screened for leukocytes surface markers, leukocytes' production of certain molecules, and circulating cytokines/chemokines/checkpoint inhibitors. Their plasma/serum will be used as well for immune proteomics, metabolomics, and other serological tests. Such parameters can provide the more comprehensive status of COVID19-infected patients at infection onset, during treatment intake, and at recovery or relapse stage. Following analysis, the main prospective outcome of this study is to identify the most reflective markers of COVID19-positive patients' outcomes.