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Review
. 2021 Dec 24:8:793102.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.793102. eCollection 2021.

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

Thi H O Nguyen  1 , Carolyn A Cohen  2 , Louise C Rowntree  1 , Maireid B Bull  2 , Asmaa Hachim  2 , Katherine Kedzierska  1 , Sophie A Valkenburg  1   2
Affiliations
Review

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

Thi H O Nguyen et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses to various proteins at different stages of exposure (A) in infection and vaccination can be quantified by (B) activation induced markers, pMHC tetramer or multimer binding for known immunodominant epitopes, or by cytokine induction (B). Figure produced with Biorender.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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