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Review
. 2022 Sep 2:13:964976.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.964976. eCollection 2022.

Single-cell analysis of the adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination

Furong Qi  1   2 , Yingyin Cao  1 , Shuye Zhang  3 , Zheng Zhang  1   2   4
Affiliations
Review

Single-cell analysis of the adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination

Furong Qi et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Amid the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, vaccination and early therapeutic interventions are the most effective means to combat and control the severity of the disease. Host immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, particularly adaptive immune responses, should be fully understood to develop improved strategies to implement these measures. Single-cell multi-omic technologies, including flow cytometry, single-cell transcriptomics, and single-cell T-cell receptor (TCR) and B-cell receptor (BCR) profiling, offer a better solution to examine the protective or pathological immune responses and molecular mechanisms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, thus providing crucial support for the development of vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19. Recent reviews have revealed the overall immune landscape of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection, and this review will focus on adaptive immune responses (including T cells and B cells) to SARS-CoV-2 revealed by single-cell multi-omics technologies. In addition, we explore how the single-cell analyses disclose the critical components of immune protection and pathogenesis during SARS-CoV-2 infection through the comparison between the adaptive immune responses induced by natural infection and by vaccination.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; adaptive immune response; antibody production; infection; vaccine.

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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
The T cell subsets and their transcriptional changes after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection. The red arrows indicate the genes or pathways that were up-regulated in individuals with COVID-19 or vaccinated compared to the healthy donors, while blue arrows indicate the genes or pathways that were down-regulated. TH1, T-helper 1 like cells; TFH, T follicular helper cells; TH17, T-helper 17 like cells; TEM, effector memory; TTE, cytotoxic terminal effector; TEX, exhausted-like; TRM, tissue-resident memory cells. The figure was created using Biorender.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The B cell subsets and their transcriptional changes after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection. The red arrows indicate the genes or pathways that were up-regulated in individuals with COVID-19 or vaccinated compared to the healthy donors, while blue arrows indicate the genes or pathways that were down-regulated. MBC, memory B cells; atMBC, atypical memory B cells; ASC, antibody secreting cells. The figure was created using BioRender.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The germinal center reaction and the production of long-lived memory B cells and antibodies. The germinal center derived memory B cells and plasma cells are more stable and long-lived, and able to produce high-affinity antibodies. TFH, T follicular helper cells. The figure was created using BioRender.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) The magnitude of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell response against different antigens. S, spike protein; M, membrane; N, nucleocapsid. (B) The dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 reactive CD8+ T cell response following SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. (C) The dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 reactive antibodies and memory B cells in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine. The figure was created using BioRender.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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