T Cells Targeting SARS-CoV-2: By Infection, Vaccination, and Against Future Variants

Thi H O Nguyen; Carolyn A Cohen; Louise C Rowntree; Maireid B Bull; Asmaa Hachim; Katherine Kedzierska; Sophie A Valkenburg

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.793102

T Cells Targeting SARS-CoV-2: By Infection, Vaccination, and Against Future Variants

Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 Dec 24:8:793102. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.793102. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Thi H O Nguyen¹, Carolyn A Cohen², Louise C Rowntree¹, Maireid B Bull², Asmaa Hachim², Katherine Kedzierska¹, Sophie A Valkenburg^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
² HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

T cell responses are a key cornerstone to viral immunity to drive high-quality antibody responses, establishing memory for recall and for viral clearance. Inefficient recruitment of T cell responses plays a role in the development of severe COVID-19 and is also represented by reduced cellular responses in men, children, and diversity compared with other epitope-specific subsets and available T cell receptor diversity. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses are elicited by multiple vaccine formats and augmented by prior infection for hybrid immunity. Epitope conservation is relatively well-maintained leading to T cell crossreactivity for variants of concern that have diminished serological responses.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; T cells; T follicular cell; crossreactivity; immunodominance; tetramer.

Publication types

Review