This site is intended for UK healthcare professionals
Medscape UK Univadis Logo
Medscape UK Univadis Logo
News

Robust T Cell Response and Immune Memory in Recovered COVID-19 Patients

A new study suggests that infection with COVID-19 elicits a robust T cell response, including inducing T cell ‘memory’ that can help the recovered patients to potentially fight infections in the future. The findings were published in Nature Immunology.

While there is sufficient evidence of COVID-19-induced B cell antibody response, it is not clearly known whether COVID-19 stimulates the immune system to produce virus-specific T cells.

The research team led by the University of Oxford analysed blood samples from 28 and 14 patients with mild and severe COVID-19, respectively, along with samples from 16 healthy individuals to evaluate T cell response and memory.

The findings showed that individuals with mild COVID-19 infection exhibited a different pattern of T cell response compared with those with a more severe infection. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was often recognised by T-cells from patients who had recovered from COVID-19. Furthermore, other viral components, including the membrane and its nucleoprotein, were also found to provoke a strong T cell immune response.

Lead author, Professor Tao Dong said: "By studying the T cell immune response in depth and breadth, we will begin to build a better understanding of why some individuals develop milder disease, and how we might be able to prevent or treat infections."

Peng Y, Mentzer AJ, Liu G, Yao X, Yin Z, Dong D, Dejnirattisai W, Rostron T, Supasa P, Liu C, López-Camacho C, Slon-Campos J, Zhao Y, Stuart DI, Paesen GC, Grimes JM, Antson AA, Bayfield OW, Hawkins DEDP, Ker DS, Wang B, Turtle L, Subramaniam K, Thomson P, Zhang P, Dold C, Ratcliff J, Simmonds P, de Silva T, Sopp P, Wellington D, Rajapaksa U, Chen YL, Salio M, Napolitani G, Paes W, Borrow P, Kessler BM, Fry JW, Schwabe NF, Semple MG, Baillie JK, Moore SC, Openshaw PJM, Ansari MA, Dunachie S, Barnes E, Frater J, Kerr G, Goulder P, Lockett T, Levin R, Zhang Y, Jing R, Ho LP, Cornall RJ, Conlon CP, Klenerman P, Screaton GR, Mongkolsapaya J, McMichael A, Knight JC, Ogg G, Dong T. Broad and strong memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells induced by SARS-CoV-2 in UK convalescent individuals following COVID-19. Nat. Immunol.2020 Sep 04 [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1038/s41590-020-0782-6. PMID: 32887977View full text

This article originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE