Lymphopenia is commonly observed in SARS and COVID-19 patients although the lymphocyte count is not always below 0.8 × 109 /L in all the patients. It is suggested that lymphopenia serves as a useful predictor for prognosis in the patients. It is also hypothesized that lymphopenia is related to glucocorticoids and apoptosis. However, the ordering between lymphopenia and apoptosis appears different between SARS and COVID-19 patients, ie, lymphopenia is prior to apoptosis in SARS patients whereas apoptosis is prior to lymphopenia in COVID-19 patients. This paper attempts to figure out this contradiction through three players, lymphopenia, glucocorticoids, and apoptosis. Although the literature does not provide a solid explanation, the level of glucocorticoids could determine the ordering between lymphopenia and apoptosis because the administration of high doses of glucocorticoids could lead to lymphopenia whereas low doses of glucocorticoids could benefit patients. In the meantime, this paper raises several questions, which need to be answered in order to better understand the whole course of COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV; SARS-CoV-2; apoptosis; glucocorticoids; lymphopenia.
© 2021 The Authors. The FASEB Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.