ABSTRACT
Vaccination and infection promote the formation, tissue distribution, and clonal evolution of B cells, which encode humoral immune memory. We evaluated pediatric and adult blood and deceased adult organ donor tissues to determine convergent antigen-specific antibody genes of similar sequences shared between individuals. B cell memory varied for different pathogens. Polysaccharide antigen-specific clones were not exclusive to the spleen. Adults had higher clone frequencies and greater class switching in lymphoid tissues than blood, while pediatric blood had abundant class-switched convergent clones. Consistent with reported serology, prepandemic children had class-switched convergent clones to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 with weak cross-reactivity to other coronaviruses, while adult blood or tissues showed few such clones. These results highlight the prominence of early childhood B cell clonal expansions and cross-reactivity for future responses to novel pathogens.
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Viral/immunology , B-Lymphocytes/immunology , Coronavirus/immunology , Immunologic Memory , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Aging , Child, Preschool , Cross Reactions , Ebolavirus/immunology , Female , Fetal Blood/immunology , Genes, Immunoglobulin , Humans , Immunoglobulin Class Switching , Immunoglobulin D/genetics , Immunoglobulin D/immunology , Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains/immunology , Immunoglobulin M/genetics , Immunoglobulin M/immunology , Infant , Lymph Nodes/immunology , Male , Middle Aged , Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell/immunology , Somatic Hypermutation, Immunoglobulin , Spleen/immunology , Young AdultABSTRACT
B cells are critical for the production of antibodies and protective immunity to viruses. Here we show that patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) who develop coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) display early recruitment of B cells expressing a limited subset of IGHV genes, progressing to a highly polyclonal response of B cells with broader IGHV gene usage and extensive class switching to IgG and IgA subclasses with limited somatic hypermutation in the initial weeks of infection. We identify convergence of antibody sequences across SARS-CoV-2-infected patients, highlighting stereotyped naive responses to this virus. Notably, sequence-based detection in COVID-19 patients of convergent B cell clonotypes previously reported in SARS-CoV infection predicts the presence of SARS-CoV/SARS-CoV-2 cross-reactive antibody titers specific for the receptor-binding domain. These findings offer molecular insights into shared features of human B cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV.