• NEWS AND VIEWS

COVID-19 poses a riddle for the immune system

It is unclear why people’s immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus varies so widely. Tracking patient responses over time sheds light on this issue, and has implications for efforts to predict disease severity.
By
  1. Stanley Perlman

    1. Stanley Perlman is in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

A dysregulated immune response, a cytokine storm and cytokine-release syndrome1,2 are some of the terms used to describe the overexuberant defence response that is thought to contribute to disease severity in certain people who become seriously ill with COVID-19. However, a precise definition of this type of immune dysfunction remains elusive. Writing in Nature, Lucas et al.3 fill in some gaps in our knowledge.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 584, 345-346 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02379-1

References

  1. Moore, J. B. & June, C. H. Science 368, 473–474 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Hirano, T. & Murakami, M. Immunity 52, 731–733 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Lucas, C. et al. Nature 584, 463–469 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Long, Q.-X. et al. Nature Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0965-6 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wang, D. et al. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 323, 1061–1069 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zhou, Z. et al. Cell Host Microbe 27, 883–890 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Lee, J. S. et al. Sci. Immunol. 5, eabd1554 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Zhang, X. et al. Nature 583, 437–440 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Mathew, D. et al. Science https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0965-6 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Open Rank Faculty Position Available in Neuroscience (Assistant, Associate and Full Professor)

    The Department of Neuroscience at the Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, a division of the University of...

    Jupiter, Florida

    The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology

  • Group Leader

    Group Leader (m/f/d) – MF-2025-02 LIT/ DRFZ Joint Group “Experimental Cell Therapy”

    Berlin and presence times in Regensburg

    LIT - Leibniz-Institute for Immunotherapy

  • Postdoctoral Researcher

    A postdoctoral position is available in the lab. of Prof. Walter Marcotti (UK) to investigate signal processing in the mammalian cochlea in vivo.

    Sheffield, South Yorkshire (GB)

    University of Sheffield

  • Faculty Positions in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Physiology and Diseases at CIMR, Beijing

    Chinese Institutes for Medical Research (CIMR), Beijing is a research organization dedicated to advancing basic and translational medical research.

    Beijing, China

    The Chinese Institutes for Medical Research (CIMR), Beijing

  • A*STAR Entrepreneurial Investigatorship

    A*STAR is calling for top global talent to join as Entrepreneurial Investigators with competitive 5-year research start-up & remuneration package.

    Singapore (SG)

    Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing