“Platelets-monocytes aggregates in COVID19 pathogenesis”

PALETTA, ANA LUZ; DI DIEGO GARCÍA, FACUNDO; GARCÍA, J; CISNEROS, J. C; VARESE, AUGUSTO; CABRERIZO, GONZALO; MAZZITELLI, IGNACIO GABRIEL; LUDUEÑA, G.; FINOCHIETO, P.; BLEICHMAR, L; PEREZ, P. S.; LEICAJ, MARIA LUZ; LÓPEZ MALIZIA, ÁLVARO; ADAMCZIK, A; GEFFNER, JORGE RAÚL; REMES LENICOV, FEDERICO; CEBALLOS, ANA

Congreso; SAIC.SAI.SAFIS, 2020; 2020

There is an urgent need to understand the pathogenesis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). In particular, thrombotic complications in patients with COVID19 are common and contribute to organ failure and mortality. It has been reported that COVID19 patients present increased platelet activation. Our aim was to evaluate if activated platelets from COVID19 patients form aggregates with monocytes and modulate their activation and functionality. Samples from whole blood and PBMCs were obtained from healthy donors or COViD19 patients. PBMCs were purified by ficoll-paque and washed platelets were obtained from plasma by centrifugation with 200 nM of prostaglandin I2 . Phenotype and cytokine production was evaluated by flow cytometry and ELISA. The viral production was measured by cytopathic effect in Vero cells. We observed that COVID19 patients presented an increased percentage of platelet-monocyte aggregates compared to control samples (7,1 ± 1,9, n=10; 44,3 ± 3,9, n=30, p