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Deconvoluting the T cell response to SARS-CoV-2: specificity versus chance- and cognate cross-reactivity (preprint)
biorxiv; 2020.
Preprint
in English
| bioRxiv | ID: ppzbmed-10.1101.2020.11.29.402677
ABSTRACT
SARS-CoV-2 infection takes a mild or clinically inapparent course in the majority of humans who contract this virus. After such individuals have cleared the virus, only the detection of SARS-CoV-2-specific immunological memory can reveal the exposure, and hopefully the establishment of immune protection. With most viral infections, the presence of specific serum antibodies has provided a reliable biomarker for the exposure to the virus of interest. SARS-CoV-2 infection, however, does not reliably induce a durable antibody response, especially in sub-clinically infected individuals. Consequently, it is plausible for a recently infected individual to yield a false negative result within only a few months after exposure. Immunodiagnostic attention has therefore shifted to studies of specific T cell memory to SARS-CoV-2. Most reports published so far agree that a T cell response is engaged during SARS-CoV-2 infection, but they also state that in 20-81% of non-SARS-CoV-2-exposed individuals, T cells respond to SARS-CoV-2 antigens (mega peptide pools), allegedly due to T cell cross-reactivity with coronaviruses causing Common Cold (CCC), or other antigens. Here we show that by introducing irrelevant mega peptide pools as negative controls to account for chance cross-reactivity, and by establishing the antigen dose-response characteristic of the T cells, one can clearly discern between cognate T cell memory induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection vs. cross-reactive T cell responses in individuals who had not been infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Preprints
Database:
bioRxiv
Main subject:
COVID-19
Language:
English
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Preprint
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