Profiling the SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell response

• Published in: The Lancet infectious diseases 2024-08, Vol.24 (8), p.e477-e478
• Main Authors: Geers, Daryl, Gommers, Lennert, Tan, Ngoc H, Bogers, Susanne, van Baarle, Debbie, Grifoni, Alba, Sette, Alessandro, Boerma, Annemarie, Visscher, Frederique, Richard, Mathilde, Funk, Mathis, Zaeck, Luca M, van der Kuy, P Hugo M, Haagmans, Bart L, Koopmans, Marion PG, GeurtsvanKessel, Corine H, de Vries, Rory D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibodies; Antigens; Appendix; Common cold; Coronaviridae; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccines; Low concentrations; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Middle East respiratory syndrome; Peptides; Respiratory diseases; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Vaccination; γ-Interferon
• ISSN: 1473-3099; 1474-4457; 1474-4457
• DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00377-3

Small volumes of whole blood were stimulated with commercially available overlapping peptide pools covering the S protein from 12 different coronaviruses: nine SARS-CoV-2 variants (D614G, Delta, BA.1, BA.2, BA.5, BQ.1.1, XBB.1.5, EG.5.1, and BA.2·86), two common cold coronaviruses (CCCs; NL63 and OC43), and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV; appendix 1 p 2). Because EG.5.1 was not circulating at the start of this study, EG.5.1 responses have only been assessed in a subset of donors. [...]since the BA.2.86 overlapping peptide pool was not commercially available at the time of the study, we used an in-house designed peptide pool that was used in a separate analysis. Both geometric mean NL63-specific and OC43-specific T-cell responses were boosted by monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccination in paired donors (appendix p 7), potentially because of boosting cross-reactive T cells.6 Although we did not expect to detect MERS-CoV-specific T cells, low concentrations of IFNγ were observed in some health-care workers pre-vaccination (12 [7%] of 166) and post-vaccination (10 [17%] of 59) that were not boosted by vaccination (figure A, appendix p 7). Because MERS-CoV does not cause infections in Europe, this finding suggests that previous coronavirus infections or COVID-19 vaccinations induced MERS-CoV cross-reactive T-cell responses in these individuals.