SARS-CoV-2 responsive T cell numbers and anti-Spike IgG levels are both associated with protection from COVID-19: A prospective cohort study in keyworkers

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Abstract

Immune correlates of protection from COVID-19 are incompletely understood. 2,826 keyworkers had T-SPOT ® Discovery SARS-CoV-2 tests (measuring interferon-γ secreting, SARS-CoV-2 responsive T cells, Oxford Immunotec Ltd), and anti-Spike S1 domain IgG antibody levels (EuroImmun AG) performed on recruitment into a cohort study. 285/2,826 (10.1%) of participants had positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests, predominantly associated with symptomatic illness, during 200 days followup. T cell responses to Spike, Nucleoprotein and Matrix proteins (SNM responses) were detected in some participants at recruitment, as were anti-Spike S1 IgG antibodies; higher levels of both were associated with protection from subsequent SARS-CoV-2 test positivity. In volunteers with moderate antibody responses, who represented 39% (252/654) of those with detectable anti-Spike IgG, protection was partial, and higher with higher circulating T cell SNM responses. SARS-CoV-2 responsive T cell numbers predict protection in individuals with low anti-Spike IgG responses; serology alone underestimates the proportion of the population protected after infection.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.02.20222778: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    RandomizationAdditionally, results obtained from any individuals tested as part of national surveillance studies of randomly selected asymptomatic individuals were excluded, since the positive predictive value of results is much lower in the absence of symptoms(26).
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations …