Sci Immunol . CD8 + T cells specific for conserved coronavirus epitopes correlate with milder disease in COVID-19 patients

[tetano]

Sci Immunol


. 2021 Jul 1;6(61):eabg5669.
doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abg5669.
CD8 ⁺ T cells specific for conserved coronavirus epitopes correlate with milder disease in COVID-19 patients


Vamsee Mallajosyula ¹ , Conner Ganjavi ² , Saborni Chakraborty ³ , Alana M McSween ¹ , Ana Jimena Pavlovitch-Bedzyk ⁴ , Julie Wilhelmy ¹ , Allison Nau ¹ , Monali Manohar ⁵ , Kari C Nadeau ^{1 5} , Mark M Davis ^{6 7 8}



Affiliations

• PMID: 34210785
• DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abg5669

Abstract

A central feature of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is that some individuals become severely ill or die, whereas others have only a mild disease course or are asymptomatic. Here we report development of an improved multimeric αβ T cell staining reagent platform, with each maxi-ferritin "spheromer" displaying 12 peptide-MHC complexes. Spheromers stain specific T cells more efficiently than peptide-MHC tetramers and capture a broader portion of the sequence repertoire for a given peptide-MHC. Analyzing the response in unexposed individuals, we find that T cells recognizing peptides conserved amongst coronaviruses are more abundant and tend to have a "memory" phenotype, compared to those unique to SARS-CoV-2. Significantly, CD8⁺ T cells with these conserved specificities are much more abundant in COVID-19 patients with mild disease versus those with a more severe illness, suggesting a protective role.