1. COVID-19 immune signatures reveal stable antiviral T cell function despite declining humoral responses
- Author
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Agnes Bonifacius, Britta Maecker-Kolhoff, Sascha David, Markus Cornberg, Georg M. N. Behrens, Julius J. Schmidt, Mustafa Yilmaz, Metodi V. Stankov, Anna Christina Dragon, Marius M. Hoeper, Daniel Gussarow, Alexander Vogel, Rainer Blasczyk, Corinna Lobenwein, Oliver Witzke, Sabine Tischer-Zimmermann, Jörg Martens, Nina Gödecke, Yang Li, Isabell Pink, Marc M. Berger, Tobias Welte, Britta Eiz-Vesper, Anke R. M. Kraft, Ulrike Krettek, and CiiM, Zentrum für individualisierte Infektionsmedizin, Feodor-Lynen-Str.7, 30625 Hannover.
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Adult ,CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes ,Male ,Programmed cell death ,T cell ,Immunology ,Medizin ,chemokine receptors ,Biology ,Antibodies, Viral ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,Chemokine receptor ,Young Adult ,0302 clinical medicine ,Immune system ,Immunity ,humoral immunity ,antibody ,medicine ,Immunology and Allergy ,Humans ,Aged ,Aged, 80 and over ,Immunity, Cellular ,Effector ,SARS-CoV-2 ,COVID-19 ,convalescence ,Middle Aged ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,endemic human coronavirus ,Immunity, Humoral ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Infectious Diseases ,cell death ,caspases ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Humoral immunity ,biology.protein ,Female ,Antibody ,antiviral T cell immunity - Abstract
Cellular and humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is critical to control primary infection and correlates with severity of disease. The role of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity, its relationship to antibodies, and pre-existing immunity against endemic coronaviruses (huCoV), which has been hypothesized to be protective, were investigated in 82 healthy donors (HDs), 204 recovered (RCs), and 92 active COVID-19 patients (ACs). ACs had high amounts of anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike IgG but lymphopenia and overall reduced antiviral T cell responses due to the inflammatory milieu, expression of inhibitory molecules (PD-1, Tim-3) as well as effector caspase-3, -7, and -8 activity in T cells. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity conferred by polyfunctional, mainly interferon-γ-secreting CD4+ T cells remained stable throughout convalescence, whereas humoral responses declined. Immune responses toward huCoV in RCs with mild disease and strong cellular SARS-CoV-2 T cell reactivity imply a protective role of pre-existing immunity against huCoV., Graphical Abstract, COVID-19 varies from asymptomatic infection to multiorgan failure, but data on cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 during disease and beyond are lacking. Bonifacius et al. show a beneficial effect of preexisting immunity to endemic coronaviruses during disease and stable cellular immunity with concomitant decrease of humoral responses early during convalescence.
- Published
- 2021