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Covid-19 Immune Signatures Reveal Stable Antiviral T-Cell Function Despite Declining Humoral Responses

2020; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.3661946

1556-5068

Agnes Bonifacius, Sabine Tischer‐Zimmermann, Alexander Vogel, Anna Christina Dragon, Ulrike Krettek, Nina Gödecke, Mustafa Yılmaz, Anke Kraft, Marius M. Hoeper, Isabell Pink, Yang Li, Tobias Welte, Britta Maecker‐Kolhoff, Jörg Martens, Metodi V. Stankov, Georg M. N. Behrens, Markus Cornberg, Sascha David, Rainer Blasczyk, Britta Eiz‐Vesper, Sneak Peek Administrator,

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research

To investigate the role of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific T-cell immunity and its relationship with antibody levels and pre-existing immunity against endemic human coronaviruses (huCoV) during disease and beyond, we analyzed patients with recovered (RC, n=178) and active Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19; AC, n=10) and healthy donors (HD, n=58). Overall, ACs had highest SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels against nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S) proteins but reduced antiviral T-cell immunity, whereas in RCs, antibody levels partially correlated with SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell frequencies. Interestingly, humoral responses declined throughout convalescence, whereas T-cell immunity remained stable. RCs exhibited polyfunctional, mainly IFN-γ-secreting CD4 + effector memory T-cell responses. Humoral and cellular response towards huCoV strains in RCs with strong SARS-CoV-2 T-cell immunity implies a protective role of pre-existing immunity against huCoV. This study provides essential evidence-based data about stable protective T-cell immunity during disease and recovery which is essential to guide diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.