Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jun:55:101505.
doi: 10.1016/j.smim.2021.101505. Epub 2021 Oct 21.

T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2

Julia Niessl  1 , Takuya Sekine  1 , Marcus Buggert  2
Affiliations
Review

T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2

Julia Niessl et al. Semin Immunol. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Exceptional efforts have been undertaken to shed light into the biology of adaptive immune responses to SARS-CoV-2. T cells occupy a central role in adaptive immunity to mediate helper functions to different arms of the immune system and are fundamental to mediate protection, control, and clearance of most viral infections. Even though many questions remain unsolved, there is a growing literature linking specific T cell characteristics to differential COVID-19 severity and vaccine outcome. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses in acute and convalescent COVID-19. Further, we discuss the T cell literature coupled to pre-existing immunity and vaccines and highlight the need to look beyond blood to fully understand how T cells function in the tissue space.

Keywords: COVID-19; Memory T cells; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

M.B. is a consultant for Oxford Immunotec. All other authors report no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Phenotype and kinetics of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses after natural infection.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Major unknowns within the SARS-CoV-2 T cell field. Which impact will interventions and T cell subsets have on memory formation and COVID-19 protection?
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Khoury D.S., Wheatley A.K., Ramuta M.D., Reynaldi A., Cromer D., Subbarao K., O’Connor D.H., Kent S.J., Davenport M.P. Measuring immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection: comparing assays and animal models. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2020;20:727–738. doi: 10.1038/s41577-020-00471-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Planas D., Veyer D., Baidaliuk A., Staropoli I., Guivel-Benhassine F., Rajah M.M., Planchais C., Porrot F., Robillard N., Puech J., Prot M., Gallais F., Gantner P., Velay A., Le Guen J., Kassis-Chikhani N., Edriss D., Belec L., Seve A., Courtellemont L., Péré H., Hocqueloux L., Fafi-Kremer S., Prazuck T., Mouquet H., Bruel T., Simon-Lorière E., Rey F.A., Schwartz O. Reduced sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 variant Delta to antibody neutralization. Nature. 2021 doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03777-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Arstila T.P., Casrouge A., Baron V., Even J., Kanellopoulos J., Kourilsky P. A direct estimate of the human alphabeta T cell receptor diversity. Science. 1999;286:958–961. doi: 10.1126/science.286.5441.958. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vella L.A., Herati R.S., Wherry E.J. CD4+ T cell differentiation in chronic viral infections: the Tfh perspective. Trends Mol. Med. 2017;23:1072–1087. doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2017.10.001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wherry E.J., Ahmed R. Memory CD8 T-cell differentiation during viral infection. J. Virol. 2004;78:5535–5545. doi: 10.1128/JVI.78.11.5535-5545.2004. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types