T cell and antibody kinetics delineate SARS-CoV-2 peptides mediating long-term immune responses in COVID-19 convalescent individuals

T Bilich, A Nelde, JS Heitmann, Y Maringer… - Science translational …, 2021 - science.org
T Bilich, A Nelde, JS Heitmann, Y Maringer, M Roerden, J Bauer, J Rieth, M Wacker, A Peter…
Science translational medicine, 2021science.org
Long-term immunological memory to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2) is crucial for the development of population-level immunity, which is the aim
of vaccination approaches. Reports on rapidly decreasing antibody titers have led to
questions regarding the efficacy of humoral immunity alone. The relevance of T cell memory
after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains unclear. Here, we investigated SARS-
CoV-2 antibody and T cell responses in matched samples of COVID-19 convalescent …
Long-term immunological memory to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is crucial for the development of population-level immunity, which is the aim of vaccination approaches. Reports on rapidly decreasing antibody titers have led to questions regarding the efficacy of humoral immunity alone. The relevance of T cell memory after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains unclear. Here, we investigated SARS-CoV-2 antibody and T cell responses in matched samples of COVID-19 convalescent individuals up to 6 months after infection. Longitudinal analysis revealed decreasing and stable spike- and nucleocapsid-specific antibody responses, respectively. In contrast, functional T cell responses remained robust, and even increased, in both frequency and intensity. Single peptide mapping of T cell diversity over time identified open reading frame–independent, dominant T cell epitopes mediating long-term SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses. Identification of these epitopes may be fundamental for COVID-19 vaccine design.
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