Changes in monocyte counts and expression of mCD14 and HLA-DR in the peripheral blood of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is an infectious disease that originally emerged in China in November 2002. It subsequently spread worldwide.Investigators involved in an international collaboration have attempted to determine a specific etiology in order to redefine what is currently best described as a syndrome into a specific disease. At present, a novel coronavirus is generally accepted as the single most probable causative agent. In the case of HIV infection, monocytes/macrophages are infected early in the infection process,and the activation of monocytes/macrophages can influence the susceptibility of these cells to infection. 1Therefore, we examined the number of monocytes and the expression of CD14 and HLA-DR in the peripheral blood of patients with SARS to determine whether monocytes were involved in the pathogenesis of SARS.