Longitudinal Analysis of Memory T-Cell Responses in Survivors of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
Clin Infect Dis
; 75(4): 596-603, 2022 Sep 10.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2319267
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a highly lethal respiratory disease caused by a zoonotic betacoronavirus. The development of effective vaccines and control measures requires a thorough understanding of the immune response to this viral infection.METHODS:
We investigated cellular immune responses up to 5 years after infection in a cohort of 59 MERS survivors by performing enzyme-linked immunospot assay and intracellular cytokine staining after stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with synthetic viral peptides.RESULTS:
Memory T-cell responses were detected in 82%, 75%, 69%, 64%, and 64% of MERS survivors from 1-5 years post-infection, respectively. Although the frequency of virus-specific interferon gamma (IFN-γ)-secreting T cells tended to be higher in moderately/severely ill patients than in mildly ill patients during the early period of follow-up, there was no significant difference among the different clinical severity groups across all time points. While both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were involved in memory T-cell responses, CD4+ T cells persisted slightly longer than CD8+ T cells. Both memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells recognized the E/M/N proteins better than the S protein and maintained their polyfunctionality throughout the period examined. Memory T-cell responses correlated positively with antibody responses during the initial 3-4 years but not with maximum viral loads at any time point.CONCLUSIONS:
These findings advance our understanding of the dynamics of virus-specific memory T-cell immunity after MERS-coronavirus infection, which is relevant to the development of effective T cell-based vaccines.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Coronavirus Infections
/
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Clin Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS