Cited by 1,120SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Researchvaccines and immunoinformatics approachesT-cell and B-cell Immunology

Selective and cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes in unexposed humans

Open access
Mateus, Jose, Grifoni, Alba, Tarke, Alison, Sidney, John, Ramirez, Sydney I., Dan, Jennifer M., Burger, Zoe C., Rawlings, Stephen A. +18 more·2020·Science

Abstract

Preexisting immune response to SARS-CoV-2: Robust T cell responses to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus occur in most individuals with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Several studies have reported that some people who have not been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 have preexisting reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 sequences. The immunological mechanisms underlying this preexisting reactivity are not clear, but previous exposure to widely circulating common cold coronaviruses might be involved. Mateus et al. found that the preexisting reactivity against SARS-CoV-2 comes from memory T cells and that cross-reactive T cells can specifically recognize a SARS-CoV-2 epitope as well as the homologous epitope from a common cold coronavirus. These findings underline the importance of determining the impacts of preexisting immune memory in COVID-19 disease severity. Science , this issue p. 89

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  • 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 [116]

    The section ‘Identification of SARS-CoV-2 epitopes cross-reactive with other common HCoVs’ demonstrates that memory CD4+ T cells recognizing common cold coronaviruses can also recognize SARS-CoV-2 epitopes. But cross-reactivity was detected in 10 of 42 tested T-cell lines; the paper does not establish that previous exposure to those coronaviruses accounts for most of the cross-reactivity overall. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • 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).”
  • Detection of cross-reactive T cells via the AIM assay was previously described.

    “Detection of cross-reactive T cells via the AIM assay was previously described (7, 11, 72).”
  • SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells from unexposed individuals were reactive to other human coronaviruses.

    “One study utilized cell sorting experiments to show that the SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells identified from SARS-CoV-2 unexposed individuals were primarily from the memory T cell compartment, and they were also reactive to other human coronaviruses144.”

    From SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 and the aging immune system (2021) · cites this paper as [144]

  • In unexposed individuals, SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells identified by cell sorting were primarily from the memory T cell compartment.

    “One study utilized cell sorting experiments to show that the SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells identified from SARS-CoV-2 unexposed individuals were primarily from the memory T cell compartment, and they were also reactive to other human coronaviruses144.”

    From SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 and the aging immune system (2021) · cites this paper as [144]

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Authors
Mateus, J., Grifoni, A., Tarke, A., Sidney, J., Ramirez, S. I., Dan, J. M., Burger, Z. C., Rawlings, S. A., Smith, D. M., Phillips, E., Mallal, S., Lammers, M., Rubiro, P., Quiambao, L., Sutherland, A., Yu, E. D., da Silva Antunes, R., Greenbaum, J., Frazier, A., Markmann, A. J., Premkumar, L., de Silva, A., Peters, B., Crotty, S., Sette, A., & Weiskopf, D.
Affiliations
  • Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
  • La Jolla Institute for Immunology (US)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
  • Murdoch University (AU)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Corresponding author
  • Sette, Alessandro
  • Weiskopf, Daniela
Venue
Science
Published
2020-10-02
Volume
370
Issue
6512
Pages
89-94
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W3047159181
Cited by
1,120
References
52
Citations by year
2026: 38 · 2025: 59 · 2024: 95 · 2023: 142 · 2022: 246 · 2021: 393 · 2020: 146 · 2014: 1
FWCI
30.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Murdoch University Research Portal (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (75N9301900065, U19 AI118626, AI142742, AI135078)
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI036214)
  • University of California, San Diego (AI007036, AI007384)
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
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic, T cell epitopes, pre-existing immunity, cross-reactive T cells, memory T cells, common cold coronaviruses, COVID-19 severity
MeSH terms
Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Blood Donors, Cross Reactions, Humans, Immunologic Memory, Pneumonia, Viral, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Open Reading Frames, Genome, Viral, Sequence Homology, Coronavirus Infections, Epitope Mapping, Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte, Pandemics

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