PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ahmed A. Quadeer
AU  - Syed Faraz Ahmed
AU  - Matthew R. McKay
TI  - Epitopes targeted by T cells in convalescent COVID-19 patients
AID  - 10.1101/2020.08.26.267724
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.08.26.267724
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/26/2020.08.26.267724.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/26/2020.08.26.267724.full
AB  - There is growing evidence pointing to the protective role of T cells against COVID-19. Vaccines eliciting targeted T cell responses have the potential to provide robust, long-lasting immunity. However, their design requires knowledge of the SARS-CoV-2-specific epitopes that can elicit a T cell response and confer protection across a wide population. Here, we provide a unified description of emerging data of SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes compiled from results of 8 independent studies of convalescent COVID-19 patients. We describe features of these epitopes relevant for vaccine design, while indicating knowledge gaps that can, in part, be augmented using prior immunological data from SARS-CoV. The landscape of SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes that we describe can help guide SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development as well as future immunological studies. A web-based platform has also been developed to complement these efforts.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.