ABSTRACT
Follicular helper T (Tfh) cells promote, whereas follicular regulatory T (Tfr) cells restrain, germinal center (GC) reactions. However, the precise roles of these cells in the complex GC reaction remain poorly understood. Here, we perturb Tfh or Tfr cells after SARS-CoV-2 spike protein vaccination in mice. We find that Tfh cells promote the frequency and somatic hypermutation (SHM) of Spike-specific GC B cells and regulate clonal diversity. Tfr cells similarly control SHM and clonal diversity in the GC but do so by limiting clonal competition. In addition, deletion of Tfh or Tfr cells during primary vaccination results in changes in SHM after vaccine boosting. Aged mice, which have altered Tfh and Tfr cells, have lower GC responses, presenting a bimodal distribution of SHM. Together, these data demonstrate that GC responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein vaccines require a fine balance of positive and negative follicular T cell help to optimize humoral immunity.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/prevention & control , Germinal Center/immunology , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/administration & dosage , T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer/immunology , T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/immunology , Aging , Animals , Antibodies, Viral/blood , B-Lymphocytes/immunology , B-Lymphocytes/metabolism , COVID-19/virology , Germinal Center/cytology , Germinal Center/metabolism , Immunity, Humoral , Mice , Mice, Inbred C57BL , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/isolation & purification , SARS-CoV-2/metabolism , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/immunology , T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer/cytology , T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer/metabolism , T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/cytology , T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/metabolism , Vaccination , Vaccines, Subunit/immunologyABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that has led to a global economic disruption and collapse. With several ongoing efforts to develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, understanding the molecular interaction between the coronavirus, host cells, and the immune system is critical for effective therapeutic interventions. Greater insight into these mechanisms will require the contribution and combination of multiple scientific disciplines including the techniques and strategies that have been successfully deployed by chemical biology to tease apart complex biological pathways. We highlight in this review well-established strategies and methods to study coronavirus-host biophysical interactions and discuss the impact chemical biology will have on understanding these interactions at the molecular level.