Cross-reactive cellular, but not humoral, immunity is detected between OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 NPs in people not infected with SARS-CoV-2: Possible role of cTFH cells.
J Leukoc Biol
; 112(2): 339-346, 2022 08.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1772730
ABSTRACT
Multiple questions about SARS-CoV-2 humoral and cellular immunity remain unanswered. One key question is whether preexisting memory T or B cells, specific for related coronaviruses in SARS-CoV-2-unexposed individuals, can recognize and suppress COVID-19, but this issue remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 antigens are restricted to serum samples from COVID-19 convalescent individuals. In contrast, cross-reactive T cell proliferation and IFN-γ production responses were detected in PBMCs of around 30% of donor samples collected prepandemic, although we found that these prepandemic T cell responses only elicited weak cTFH activation upon stimulation with either HCoV-OC43 or SARS-CoV-2 NP protein. Overall, these observations confirm that T cell cross-reactive with SARS-CoV-2 antigens are present in unexposed people, but suggest that the T cell response to HCoV-OC43 could be deficient in some important aspects, like TFH expansion, that might compromise the generation of cross-reactive TFH cells and antibodies. Understanding these differences in cellular responses may be of critical importance to advance in our knowledge of immunity against SARS-CoV-2.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Coronavirus OC43, Human
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Leukoc Biol
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
JLB.4COVCRA0721-356RRR
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