Cellular and humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is critical to control primary infection and correlates with severity of disease. The role of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity, its relationship to antibodies, and pre-existing immunity against endemic coronaviruses (huCoV), which has been hypothesized to be protective, were investigated in 82 healthy donors (HDs), 204 recovered (RCs), and 92 active COVID-19 patients (ACs). ACs had high amounts of anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike IgG but lymphopenia and overall reduced antiviral T cell responses due to the inflammatory milieu, expression of inhibitory molecules (PD-1, Tim-3) as well as effector caspase-3, -7, and -8 activity in T cells. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity conferred by polyfunctional, mainly interferon-γ-secreting CD4(+) T cells remained stable throughout convalescence, whereas humoral responses declined. Immune responses toward huCoV in RCs with mild disease and strong cellular SARS-CoV-2 T cell reactivity imply a protective role of pre-existing immunity against huCoV.
- Bonifacius, A.
- Tischer-Zimmermann, S.
- Dragon, A. C.
- Gussarow, D.
- Vogel, A.
- Krettek, U.
- Gödecke, N.
- Yilmaz, M.
- Kraft, A. R. M.
- Hoeper, M. M.
- Pink, I.
- Schmidt, J. J.
- Li, Y.
- Welte, T.
- Maecker-Kolhoff, B.
- Martens, J.
- Berger, M. M.
- Lobenwein, C.
- Stankov, M. V.
- Cornberg, M.
- David, S.
- Behrens, G. M. N.
- Witzke, O.
- Blasczyk, R.
- Eiz-Vesper, B.
Keywords
- Covid-19
- SARS-CoV-2
- antibody
- antiviral T cell immunity
- caspases
- cell death
- chemokine receptors
- convalescence
- endemic human coronavirus
- humoral immunity
- The funders played no role in designing the study, in collecting, analyzing, or
- interpreting the data, in writing the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the
- results.
