Abstract
Background The prevention of COVID-19 pandemic is highly complicated by the prevalence of asymptomatic and recurrent infection. Many previous immunological studies have focused on symptomatic and convalescent patients, while the immune responses in asymptomatic patients and re-detectable positive cases remain unclear.
Methods Here we comprehensively analyzed the peripheral T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire of 54 COVID-19 patients in different phases, including asymptomatic, symptomatic, convalescent and re-detectable positive cases.
Results We found progressed immune responses from asymptomatic to symptomatic phase. Furthermore, the TCR profiles of re-detectable positive cases were highly similar to those of asymptomatic patients, which could predict the risk of recurrent infection.
Conclusion Therefore, TCR repertoire surveillance has the potential to strengthen the clinical management and the immunotherapy development for COVID-19.
Funding The Science and Technology Innovation Project of Foshan Municipality (2020001000431) and the National Key Research and Development Project (2020YFA0708001).
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
