Cited by 3,595SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Researchvaccines and immunoinformatics approachesCOVID-19 Clinical Research Studies

Targets of T Cell Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus in Humans with COVID-19 Disease and Unexposed Individuals

Open access
Grifoni, Alba, Weiskopf, Daniela, Ramirez, Sydney I., Mateus, Jose, Dan, Jennifer M., Moderbacher, Carolyn Rydyznski, Rawlings, Stephen A., Sutherland, Aaron +12 more·2020·Cell

Abstract

Understanding adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is important for vaccine development, interpreting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pathogenesis, and calibration of pandemic control measures. Using HLA class I and II predicted peptide "megapools," circulating SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells were identified in ∼70% and 100% of COVID-19 convalescent patients, respectively. CD4+ T cell responses to spike, the main target of most vaccine efforts, were robust and correlated with the magnitude of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgA titers. The M, spike, and N proteins each accounted for 11%-27% of the total CD4+ response, with additional responses commonly targeting nsp3, nsp4, ORF3a, and ORF8, among others. For CD8+ T cells, spike and M were recognized, with at least eight SARS-CoV-2 ORFs targeted. Importantly, we detected SARS-CoV-2-reactive CD4+ T cells in ∼40%-60% of unexposed individuals, suggesting cross-reactive T cell recognition between circulating "common cold" coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.cell.2020.05.015

Cites

70 of 70 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Lymphocytes from 20% to 50% of unexposed donors display significant reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 Ag peptide pools.

    “lymphocytes from 20% to 50% of unexposed donors display significant reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 Ag peptide pools (Figure 6).”

    From Guidelines for the use of flow cytometry and cell sorting in immunological studies (third edition) (2021) · cites this paper as [110]

    The Results section on pre-existing cross-reactive T cells reports detectable non-spike CD4+ T-cell responses in 50% of unexposed donors. The Discussion gives the broader estimate as 40%–60%, not 20%–50%; the claim’s lower bound is unsupported. Our copy provides no page numbers for these passages. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • This cross-reactivity largely originates from previous exposure to circulating common cold coronaviruses.

    “This cross-reactivity largely originates from previous exposure to circulating common cold coronaviruses [110-116].”

    From Guidelines for the use of flow cytometry and cell sorting in immunological studies (third edition) (2021) · cites this paper as [110]

    The Results section, “Pre-existing Cross-Reactive Coronavirus-Specific T Cells” (page unavailable), reports SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells in unexposed donors who were seropositive for two common-cold coronaviruses. The Discussion (page unavailable) says this may reflect some cross-reactive pre-existing immunity, but the study did not identify the cross-reactive peptides or establish their origin. It therefore does not support the stronger claim that cross-reactivity largely originates from prior common-cold coronavirus exposure. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Using HLA class I and II predicted peptide megapools, circulating SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells were identified in COVID-19 acute, mild and convalescent patients.

    “Using HLA class I and II predicted peptide “megapools,” circulating SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells were identified in COVID-19 acute, mild and convalescent patients [110, 118-125].”

    From Guidelines for the use of flow cytometry and cell sorting in immunological studies (third edition) (2021) · cites this paper as [110]

    The Abstract and Results report using HLA class I and II peptide megapools to identify SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells in convalescent patients. The Results section on recovered patients says blood was collected after symptoms had resolved; although most participants had experienced mild illness, the paper does not report identifying these cells in patients during acute illness. Page numbers were not provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.91)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • A recent study indicates SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses may be associated with better recovery from COVID-19.

    “A recent study indicates SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses may be associated with better recovery from COVID-19 (57).”

    From An <i>Alphavirus</i> -derived replicon RNA vaccine induces SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody and T cell responses in mice and nonhuman primates (2020) · cites this paper as [57]

    The Results (CD4+ and CD8+ T Cell Responses; page unavailable) report SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in recovered COVID-19 patients. The study did not compare patients with better and worse recovery, so it does not establish an association between those responses and better recovery. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Virus-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, including memory CD8+ cells, persist in recovered COVID-19 patients, but their protective role against reinfection or severe disease is unclear.

    “Virus-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, including CD8+ memory T cells, are present in patients who have recovered from COVID-19 (refs44,45), but their importance in protection against future infection and/or severe disease remain uncertain44,46–48.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Huang A.T. Garcia-Carreras B. Hitchings M.D.T. Yang B. Katzelnick L. Rattigan S.M. Borgert B. Moreno C. Solomon B.D. Rodriguez-Barraquer I. A systematic review of antibody mediated immunity to coronaviruses: antibody kinetics, correlates of protection, and association of antibody responses with severity of disease medRxiv 2020 2020.2004.2014.20065771 PMC7499300 32943637
  2. Wu Z. McGoogan J.M. Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72 314 Cases From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention JAMA 323 2020 1239 1242 32091533

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Grifoni, A., Weiskopf, D., Ramirez, S. I., Mateus, J., Dan, J. M., Moderbacher, C. R., Rawlings, S. A., Sutherland, A., Premkumar, L., Jadi, R. S., Marrama, D., de Silva, A. M., Frazier, A., Carlin, A. F., Greenbaum, J. A., Peters, B., Krammer, F., Smith, D. M., Crotty, S., & Sette, A.
Affiliations
  • La Jolla Institute for Immunology (US)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Corresponding author
  • Crotty, Shane
  • Sette, Alessandro
Venue
Cell
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-06
Volume
181
Issue
7
Pages
1489-1501.e15
ISSN
0092-8674 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3025320502
Cited by
3,595
References
70
Citations by year
2026: 96 · 2025: 182 · 2024: 273 · 2023: 439 · 2022: 758 · 2021: 1166 · 2020: 677 · 2018: 1 · 2014: 1
FWCI
100.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cell (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • University of California, San Diego (AI007384, AI007036)
  • National Institutes of Health (AI007036, AI007384, U19 AI118626, 75N9301900065)
  • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI42742, AI135078)
  • Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación
  • Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic, T cell response, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, adaptive immunity, spike protein, M protein, non-structural proteins, cross-reactive T cells, common cold coronaviruses, convalescent patients, vaccine development
MeSH terms
Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 Vaccines, Convalescence, Cross Reactions, Humans, Leukocytes, Mononuclear, Pneumonia, Viral, Viral Proteins, Viral Vaccines, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Coronavirus Infections, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte, Pandemics, Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review