A single-cell atlas reveals shared and distinct immune responses and metabolism during SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 infections

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 are RNA viruses that have killed millions of people worldwide. Understanding the similarities and differences between these two infections is critical for understanding disease progression and for developing effective vaccines and therapies, particularly for 38 million HIV-1+ individuals who are vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 co-infection. Here, we utilized single-cell transcriptomics to perform a systematic comparison of 94,442 PBMCs from 7 COVID-19 and 9 HIV-1+ patients in an integrated immune atlas, in which 27 different cell types were identified using an accurate consensus single-cell annotation method. While immune cells in both cohorts show shared inflammation and disrupted mitochondrial function, COVID-19 patients exhibit stronger humoral immunity, broader IFN-I signaling, elevated Rho GTPase and mTOR pathway activities, and downregulated mitophagy. Our results elucidate transcriptional signatures associated with COVID-19 and HIV-1 that may reveal insights into fundamental disease biology and potential therapeutic targets to treat these viral infections. HighlightsO_LICOVID-19 and HIV-1+ patients show disease-specific inflammatory immune signatures C_LIO_LICOVID-19 patients show more productive humoral responses than HIV-1+ patients C_LIO_LISARS-CoV-2 elicits more enriched IFN-I signaling relative to HIV-I C_LIO_LIDivergent, impaired metabolic programs distinguish SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 infections C_LI