Children and Adults With Mild COVID-19: Dynamics of the Memory T Cell Response up to 10 Months
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Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to considerable morbidity/mortality worldwide, but most infections, especially among children, have a mild course. However, it remains largely unknown whether infected children develop cellular immune memory.
Methods
To determine whether a memory T cell response is being developed, we performed a longitudinal assessment of the SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell response by IFN-γ ELISPOT and activation marker analyses of peripheral blood samples from unvaccinated children and adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.
Results
Upon stimulation of PBMCs with heat-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 or overlapping peptides of spike (S-SARS-CoV-2) and nucleocapsid proteins, we found S-SARS-CoV-2-specific IFN-γ T cell responses in infected children (83%) and adults (100%) that were absent in unexposed controls. Frequencies of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells were higher in infected adults, especially several cases with moderate symptoms, compared to infected children. The S-SARS-CoV-2 IFN-γ T cell response correlated with S1-SARS-CoV-2-specific serum antibody concentrations. Predominantly, effector memory CD4 + T cells of a Th1 phenotype were activated upon exposure to SARS-CoV-2 antigens. Frequencies of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells were significantly reduced at 10 months after symptom onset, while S1-SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG concentrations were still detectable in 90% of all children and adults.
Conclusions
Our data indicate that an antigen-specific T cell and antibody response is developed after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adults. It remains to be elucidated to what extent this SARS-CoV-2-specific response can contribute to an effective recall response after reinfection.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.09.10.21263333: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics IRB: The protocol for the SARS-CoV-2-related study, based on the WHO First Few Hundred protocol, was approved by the Medical-Ethical Review Committee of University Medical Center Utrecht (NL13529.041.06).
Consent: Written informed consent was received from all participants and/or from parents/guardians of minor participants (<16 years old).Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources Subsequently, plates were washed and incubated for 1 hour with 1 μg/mL anti-human IFN-γ detection biotinylated-antibody (7-B6-1, Mabtech) in PBS-0.05% casein (Sigma). anti-human IFN-γsuggested: NoneSciScore for 10.1101/2021.09.10.21263333: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics IRB: The protocol for the SARS-CoV-2-related study, based on the WHO First Few Hundred protocol, was approved by the Medical-Ethical Review Committee of University Medical Center Utrecht (NL13529.041.06).
Consent: Written informed consent was received from all participants and/or from parents/guardians of minor participants (<16 years old).Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources Subsequently, plates were washed and incubated for 1 hour with 1 μg/mL anti-human IFN-γ detection biotinylated-antibody (7-B6-1, Mabtech) in PBS-0.05% casein (Sigma). anti-human IFN-γsuggested: NoneSoftware and Algorithms Sentences Resources Statistics: Statistical analyses were performed using Prism V7.0 (GraphPad). Prismsuggested: (PRISM, RRID:SCR_005375)GraphPadsuggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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