Variant-divergent death: Omicron intensifies bystander T-cell apoptosis via GDF15–BCL2L13

Our data delineate a two-track model of Omicron immune injury-CD63-enabled T-cell entry plus GDF15-BCL2L13-driven bystander apoptosis-that reconciles lower epithelial cytopathicity with deeper T-cell depletion in critical disease. These findings nominate the GDF15-BCL2L13 axis as a mechanistic marker and potential point of intervention.

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Publication Details

Journal
Cell Death Discovery
Published
2026-03-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-026-03079-x
Primary Topic
GDF15 and Related Biomarkers
Type
article
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article

Variant-divergent death: Omicron intensifies bystander T-cell apoptosis via GDF15–BCL2L13

He Qiu, Jianfeng Xie, Hanbing Chen, Ying Tang et al.
Cell Death Discovery
GDF15 and Related Biomarkers
article

Variant-divergent death: Omicron intensifies bystander T-cell apoptosis via GDF15–BCL2L13

He Qiu, Jianfeng Xie, Hanbing Chen, Ying Tang, Ling Liu, Jiahuang Li, Shufeng Li, Jie Chao, Ying Chi, Chao Gao, Xinxing Lu, Nan Shi, Ruixuan Yu
article en

Abstract

Our data delineate a two-track model of Omicron immune injury-CD63-enabled T-cell entry plus GDF15-BCL2L13-driven bystander apoptosis-that reconciles lower epithelial cytopathicity with deeper T-cell depletion in critical disease. These findings nominate the GDF15-BCL2L13 axis as a mechanistic marker and potential point of intervention.

Cell Death Discovery
China Pharmaceutical University (CN), Nantong University (CN), Southeast University (BD), Zhongda Hospital Southeast University (CN), Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CN), The Affiliated Taizhou People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (CN), Southeast University (CN), Taizhou University (CN)
Good health and well-being
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
GDF15 and Related Biomarkers
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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Variant-divergent death: Omicron intensifies bystander T-cell apoptosis via GDF15–BCL2L13 — He Qiu, Jianfeng Xie, et al. · Cell Death Discovery (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS