SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)-specific T cell and B cell responses in convalescent rheumatoid arthritis: Monozygotic twins pair case observation.
Scand J Immunol
; 95(5): e13151, 2022 May.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1714317
ABSTRACT
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients present higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19), and proper management of the disease in this population requires a better understanding of how the immune system controls the virus. We analyzed the T cell and B cell phenotypes, and their repertoire in a pair of monozygotic twins with RA mismatched for COVID-19 infection. Twin- was not infected, while Twin+ was infected and effectively controlled the infection. We found no significant changes on the αß T cell composition, while γδ T cells and B cells presented considerable expansion of memory population in Twin+ and robust T/B cell responses to several SARS-CoV-2 peptides. T cell receptor ß/γ-chain and immunoglobulin heavy chain next-generation sequencing depicted a remarkable higher diversity in Twin+ compared with Twin-, despite no significant changes being found in variable/joining family usage. Repertoire overlap analyses showed that, although being identical twins, very few clones were shared between them, indicating that COVID-19 may lead to deep changes on the immune cell repertoire in RA patients. Altogether, our results indicate that RA patients may develop robust and persistent COVID-19-specific T/B cell responses; γδ T cells and B cells may play a key role in the management of COVID-19 in RA, and the infection may lead to a profound reshaping of immune cell receptor specificities.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Arthritis, Rheumatoid
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Scand J Immunol
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Sji.13151
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