BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Molecular Bacterial Pathogenesis
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1636463
This article is part of the Research TopicImmunometabolic circuits in host-pathogen interactionView all articles
Expression of Metabolic Genes in NK Cells is Associated with Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Severe COVID-19: A Brief Report
Provisionally accepted
Kenia Y Osuna-Espinoza1Manuel G Mejía-Torres1
Adrian Camacho-Ortiz1Eduardo Perez-Alba1Azalia M Martinez-Castilla1
Mario C Salinas-Carmona1
Adrian G Rosas-Taraco1,2*- 1Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Servicio y Departamento de Inmunología. Facultad de Medicina, Monterrey, Mexico
- 2Autonomous University of Nuevo León, San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes with cytotoxic activity against tumors and viruses.The pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has increased the investigation of their role in disease severity. However, their functional status and modulators remain controversial. Recent studies highlighted the role of metabolism in immune function, but metabolic changes in NK cells during SARS-CoV-2 infection remain unexplored. This study compares metabolic (SIRT1, AMPKA, HIF1A, and GLUT1) and inflammatory (NFKB1, NFKB1A, IFNG, and SOCS1) gene expression, and flow cytometry-based assessment of functional markers in NK cells from severe COVID-19 patients (n=15) and the control group (n=10), and their association with clinical outcomes. Severe COVID-19 patients exhibited elevated IFNg, Granzyme B, and KIR2DL1 expression in NK cells compared to controls (P < 0.005), while LAMP1 was unchanged (P > 0.05). NK cells from deceased patients exhibited significantly lower expression levels of LAMP1 and Granzyme B (P < 0.05). Patients hospitalized >7 days presented lower Granzyme-B+ NK cells (P < 0.05). NK cells from severe COVID-19 patients showed downregulation of HIF1A and GLUT1, and upregulation of NFKB1 (P < 0.05). HIF1A and GLUT1 expression were elevated in patients with >7 days of hospitalization (P < 0.05). SIRT1 expression was higher in patients requiring intubation (P < 0.05). SIRT1, HIF1A, and GLUT1 were upregulated in deceased patients (P < 0.05). In conclusion, we demonstrate that NK cells from patients with severe COVID-19 exhibit increased functional markers and dysregulated metabolic gene expression associated with clinical outcomes.
Keywords: Severe COVID-19, NK cells, Metabolism, SIRT1, AMPK, HIF1A, GLUT1
Received: 27 May 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Osuna-Espinoza, Mejía-Torres, Camacho-Ortiz, Perez-Alba, Martinez-Castilla, Salinas-Carmona and Rosas-Taraco. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Adrian G Rosas-Taraco, Autonomous University of Nuevo León, San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.