Background: Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) has a high mortality in HIV-negative immunocompromised patients. The occurrence and development of PCP are believed to be correlated with the level of lymphocytes and their subsets. The aim of this study was to determine if the levels of lymphocyte subpopulations and immunoglobulin are associated with PCP.
Methods: A total of 74 immunocompromised patients were enrolled in this single-center cohort study. Diagnosis of PCP was based on the relevant pulmonary symptoms and radiological imaging, and the detection of Pneumocystis jirovecii in BAL fluid or biopsy tissue by metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS). All patients were divided into two groups (PCP group and non-PCP group) and the patients in PCP group were then divided into two groupsbased on the outcome of the disease during the hospitalization.
Results: We observed a significant lower level of IgG (p =0.000) and B lymphocyte counts (p =0.017) in the PCP group comparing to that in the non-PCP group. CD4+ T cell counts, as well as the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T cells in circulation and BAL fluid were also lower in the PCP group comparing to those in the non-PCP group. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the PCP group was significantly higher than that in the non-PCP group (p =0.029). In the PCP group, a lower level of total lymphocytes (p =0.004), T cells (p =0.001), CD4+ cells (p =0.001), and CD8+ cells (p =0.007), as well as the proportion of lymphocytes in BAL fluid (p =0.000) were found in deceased patients comparing to those in the survived group.
Conclusion: Our study revealed an important role of humoral immunity in the infection of Pneumocystis jirovecii . The level of B cells and IgG could be used as a supplement to predict the occurrence of PCP. The level of CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes was significantly correlated with the outcome of PCP.
Keywords: Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, immunosuppression, HIV-negative, lymphocytes, immunoglobulin