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
. 2023 Mar 20:14:1070077.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1070077. eCollection 2023.

Architecture of the SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell repertoire

Ksenia V Zornikova  1 , Saveliy A Sheetikov  1   2 , Alexander Yu Rusinov  1   2 , Rustam N Iskhakov  1   2 , Apollinariya V Bogolyubova  1
Affiliations
Review

Architecture of the SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell repertoire

Ksenia V Zornikova et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

The T cell response plays an indispensable role in the early control and successful clearance of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, several important questions remain about the role of cellular immunity in COVID-19, including the shape and composition of disease-specific T cell repertoires across convalescent patients and vaccinated individuals, and how pre-existing T cell responses to other pathogens-in particular, common cold coronaviruses-impact susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the subsequent course of disease. This review focuses on how the repertoire of T cell receptors (TCR) is shaped by natural infection and vaccination over time. We also summarize current knowledge regarding cross-reactive T cell responses and their protective role, and examine the implications of TCR repertoire diversity and cross-reactivity with regard to the design of vaccines that confer broader protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; T cell immune response; T cell receptors; T cell repertoire; T cell repertoire dynamic.

PubMed Disclaimer

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.

References

    1. Liao M, Liu Y, Yuan J, Wen Y, Xu G, Zhao J, et al. . Single-cell landscape of bronchoalveolar immune cells in patients with COVID-19. Nat Med (2020) 26(6):842–4. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-0901-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rydyznski Moderbacher C, Ramirez SI, Dan JM, Grifoni A, Hastie KM, Weiskopf D, et al. . Antigen-specific adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in acute COVID-19 and associations with age and disease severity. Cell (2020) 183(4):996–1012.e19. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.09.038 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tan M, Liu Y, Zhou R, Deng X, Li F, Liang K, et al. . Immunopathological characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 cases in guangzhou, China. Immunology (2020) 160(3):261–8. doi: 10.1111/imm.13223 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Swadling L, Diniz MO, Schmidt NM, Amin OE, Chandran A, Shaw E, et al. . Pre-existing polymerase-specific T cells expand in abortive seronegative SARS-CoV-2. Nature (2022) 601(7891):110–7. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04186-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Titov A, Shaykhutdinova R, Shcherbakova OV, Serdyuk YV, Sheetikov SA, Zornikova KV, et al. . Immunogenic epitope panel for accurate detection of non-cross-reactive T cell response to SARS-CoV-2. JCI Insight (2022) 7(9). doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.157699 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Supplementary concepts