RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory is long-lasting in the majority of convalsecent COVID-19 individuals
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.11.15.383463
DO 10.1101/2020.11.15.383463
A1 Ziwei Li
A1 Jing Liu
A1 Hui Deng
A1 Xuecheng Yang
A1 Hua Wang
A1 Xuemei Feng
A1 Gennadiy Zelinskyy
A1 Mirko Trilling
A1 Kathrin Sutter
A1 Mengji Lu
A1 Ulf Dittmer
A1 Baoju Wang
A1 Dongliang Yang
A1 Xin Zheng
A1 Jia Liu
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/16/2020.11.15.383463.abstract
AB An unaddressed key question in the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the duration of immunity for which specific T cell responses against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are an indispensable element. Being situated in Wuhan where the pandemic initiated enables us to conduct the longest analyses of memory T cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 convalescent individuals (CIs). Magnitude and breadth of SARS-CoV-2 memory CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were heterogeneous between patients but robust responses could be detected up to 9 months post disease onset in most CIs. Loss of memory CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were observed in only 16.13% and 25.81% of CIs, respectively. Thus, the overall magnitude and breadth of memory CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were quite stable and not inversely correlated with the time from disease onset. Interestingly, the only significant decrease in the response was found for memory CD4 T cells in the first 6-month post COVID-19 disease onset. Longitudinal analyses revealed that the kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 memory CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were quite heterogenous between patients. Loss of memory CD4 T cell responses was observed more frequently in asymptomatic cases than after symptomatic COVID-19. Interestingly, the few CIs in which SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG responses disappeared showed more durable memory CD4 T cell responses than CIs who remained IgG-positive for month. Collectively, we provide the first comprehensive characterization of the long-term memory T cell response in CIs, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity is long-lasting in the majority of individuals.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.