1. CD4 and IL-2 mediated NK cell responses after COVID-19 infection and mRNA vaccination in adults.
- Author
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Alhajjat AM, Redden CR, Langereis M, Papastefan ST, Ito JAS, Ott KC, Turner LE, Kang HK, and Shaaban AF
- Subjects
- Adult, Humans, Antibodies, Viral immunology, SARS-CoV-2, Vaccination, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, COVID-19 immunology, COVID-19 prevention & control, Interleukin-2, Killer Cells, Natural immunology, mRNA Vaccines immunology
- Abstract
A detailed understanding of protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is incredibly important in fighting the pandemic. Central to protective immunity is the ability of the immune system to recall previous exposures. Although antibody and T cell immunity have gained considerable attention, the contribution of the NK cell compartment to immune recall and protection from SARS-CoV-2 has not been explored. In this study, we investigate the NK cell responses to stimulation with SARS-CoV-2 in previously exposed and non-exposed individuals. We show that NK cells demonstrate an enhanced CD4+ T cell dependent response when re-exposed to SARS-CoV-2 antigen. The enhanced response is dependent on T cells and correlates with the number of SARS-CoV-2 specific CD4 T cells. We find that IL-2 is a critical mediator of NK cell function. These findings suggest that NK cells contribute to the protective responses against SARS-CoV-2 through a cooperation with antigen-specific CD4 T cells and have significant implications on our understanding of protective immunity in SARS-CoV-2., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)
- Published
- 2023
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