PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sokal, Aurélien
AU  - Chappert, Pascal
AU  - Roeser, Anais
AU  - Barba-Spaeth, Giovanna
AU  - Fourati, Slim
AU  - Azzaoui, Imane
AU  - Vandenberghe, Alexis
AU  - Fernandez, Ignacio
AU  - Bouvier-Alias, Magali
AU  - Crickx, Etienne
AU  - Ferchiou, Asma Beldi
AU  - Hue, Sophie
AU  - Languille, Laetitia
AU  - Baloul, Samia
AU  - Noizat-Pirenne, France
AU  - Luka, Marine
AU  - Megret, Jérôme
AU  - Ménager, Mickaël
AU  - Pawlotsky, Jean-Michel
AU  - Fillatreau, Simon
AU  - Rey, Felix A
AU  - Weill, Jean-Claude
AU  - Reynaud, Claude-Agnès
AU  - Mahévas, Matthieu
TI  - Maturation and persistence of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 memory B cell response
AID  - 10.1101/2020.11.17.385252
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.11.17.385252
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/17/2020.11.17.385252.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/17/2020.11.17.385252.full
AB  - Memory B cells play a fundamental role in host defenses against viruses, but to date, their role have been relatively unsettled in the context of SARS-CoV-2. We report here a longitudinal single-cell and repertoire profiling of the B cell response up to 6 months in mild and severe COVID-19 patients. Distinct SARS-CoV-2 Spike-specific activated B cell clones fueled an early antibody-secreting cell burst as well as a durable synchronous germinal center response. While highly mutated memory B cells, including preexisting cross-reactive seasonal Betacoronavirus-specific clones, were recruited early in the response, neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific clones accumulated with time and largely contributed to the late remarkably stable memory B-cell pool. Highlighting germinal center maturation, these cells displayed clear accumulation of somatic mutations in their variable region genes over time. Overall, these findings demonstrate that an antigen-driven activation persisted and matured up to 6 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection and may provide long-term protection.Competing Interest StatementM.M. received research funds from GSK, outside of the submitted work and personal fees from LFB and Amgen, outside of the submitted work. JC.W. received consulting fees from Merieux, outside of the submitted work. JM.P. received personal fees from Abbvie, Gilead, Merck, and Siemens Healthcare, outside the submitted work.