Currently, there is no information about the cellular and molecular mechanism underlying Long COVID-associated lung parenchymal abnormalities. Thus, using cellular resolution spatial transcriptomic technology, we analyzed and compared the tissue from patients with Long COVID and IPF patients.

Methods

We performed COSmx technology on FFPE slides obtained from 7 patients with early IPF, long COVID, or control The lung tissue was sampled via a cryobiopsy , stained (Pancytokeratine, CD45, CD3), and imaged. A cellular segmentation was performed in the region of interest selected from the stained tissue and the transcriptomic expression pattern obtained from a 1000 genes panel was aligned on each segmented cell.

Results

139182 cells were analyzed. As compared to controls, lung tissue One Long COVID and IPF patients showed an increased proportion of fibroblast and pro-fibrotic macrophages (SPP1+, MMP9+, CHI3L1+) proportion in the distal lung (picture 1A). Long COVID patients showed an increased proportion of plasmocytes near the proximal airways as compared to IPF and Control patients (Figure1B). Aberrant Basaloid cells were identified in one Long COVID patient, predominantly located near the basal cells (Figure 1 B, C). Analysis of the vascular endothelial cells revealed enrichment of veinous cells COL15A1+ in the IPF lung and in one Long COVID patient (Figure 1D).

Conclusion

These preliminary results suggest abnormal cell population described in the IPF lung can be identified in the Long COVID lung. We will confirm these data in a larger cohort.