Longitudinal immune profiling reveals dominant epitopes mediating long-term humoral immunity in COVID-19-convalescent individuals.
J Allergy Clin Immunol
; 149(4): 1225-1241, 2022 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1654641
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly pathogenic and contagious coronavirus that caused a global pandemic with 5.2 million fatalities to date. Questions concerning serologic features of long-term immunity, especially dominant epitopes mediating durable antibody responses after SARS-CoV-2 infection, remain to be elucidated.OBJECTIVE:
We aimed to dissect the kinetics and longevity of immune responses in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, as well as the epitopes responsible for sustained long-term humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2.METHODS:
We assessed SARS-CoV-2 immune dynamics up to 180 to 220 days after disease onset in 31 individuals who predominantly experienced moderate symptoms of COVID-19, then performed a proteome-wide profiling of dominant epitopes responsible for persistent humoral immune responses.RESULTS:
Longitudinal analysis revealed sustained SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-specific antibodies and neutralizing antibodies in COVID-19 patients, along with activation of cytokine production at early stages after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Highly reactive epitopes that were capable of mediating long-term antibody responses were shown to be located at the spike and ORF1ab proteins. Key epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were mapped to the N-terminal domain of the S1 subunit and the S2 subunit, with varying degrees of sequence homology among endemic human coronaviruses and high sequence identity between the early SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan-Hu-1) and current circulating variants.CONCLUSION:
SARS-CoV-2 infection induces persistent humoral immunity in COVID-19-convalescent individuals by targeting dominant epitopes located at the spike and ORF1ab proteins that mediate long-term immune responses. Our findings provide a path to aid rational vaccine design and diagnostic development.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
/
Vaccines
/
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Allergy Clin Immunol
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.JACI.2022.01.005
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