SARS-CoV-2-Specific T Cells Exhibit Phenotypic Features of Helper Function, Lack of Terminal Differentiation, and High Proliferation Potential
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Abstract
Convalescing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients mount robust T cell responses against SARS-CoV-2, suggesting an important role of T cells in viral clearance. To date, the phenotypes of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells remain poorly defined. Using 38-parameter CyTOF, we phenotyped longitudinal specimens of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from nine individuals who recovered from mild COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ T cells were exclusively Th1 cells and predominantly Tcm cells with phenotypic features of robust helper function. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells were predominantly Temra cells in a state of less terminal differentiation than most Temra cells. Subsets of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells express CD127, can proliferate homeostatically, and can persist for over 2 months. Our results suggest that long-lived and robust T cell immunity is generated following natural SARS-CoV-2 infection and support an important role of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells in host control of COVID-19.
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SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells are diverse from other virus-specific T cells, express CD127, and possess lymphoid-homing Tfh cells.
“SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells are diverse from other virus-specific T cells, they express CD127 and they possess lymphoid-homing Tfh cells.”
From Guidelines for the use of flow cytometry and cell sorting in immunological studies (third edition) (2021) · cites this paper as [129]
The Results compare SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells with CMV-specific cells and report CD127 expression in subsets of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ cells. The Results and Discussion describe lymph-node-homing features and circulating T follicular helper (cTfh) cells, but do not establish that the sampled cells were lymphoid Tfh cells. The comparison is with CMV-specific cells, not virus-specific T cells generally; page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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References 56 · Cited by 188
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [53]Ma T. Luo X. George A. Mukherjee G. Sen N. Spitzer T. Giudice L.C. Greene W.C. Roan N.R. HIV efficiently infects T cells from the endometrium and remodels them to promote systemic viral spread eLife 9 2020 e55487 10.7554/eLife.55487 32452381 PMC7250576 · DOI
- Authors
- Neidleman, J., Luo, X., Frouard, J., Xie, G., Gill, G., Stein, E. S., McGregor, M., Ma, T., George, A. F., Kosters, A., Greene, W. C., Vasquez, J., Ghosn, E., Lee, S., & Roan, N. R.
- Affiliations
- Gladstone Institutes (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Emory University (US)
- San Francisco General Hospital (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lee, Sulggi
- Roan, Nadia R.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Cell Reports Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-09
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 100081
- ISSN
- 2666-3791 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7437502
- OpenAlex
- W3049243611
- Cited by
- 188
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 19
- FWCI
- 5.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cell Reports Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Sandler Foundation
- Roddenberry Foundation
- National Institutes of Health (P30 DK063720, S10 1S10OD018040-01)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- 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, Th1 cells, TEMRA cells, terminal differentiation, CD127, homeostatic proliferation, convalescent patients, T cell phenotyping
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