Long-term memory CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells specific for SARS-CoV-2 in individuals who received the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36068240.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-32989-4 and PMC identifier 9447987.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Long-term memory T cells have not been well analyzed in individuals vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine although analysis of these T cells is necessary to evaluate vaccine efficacy. Here, investigate HLA-A*24:02-restricted CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells specific for SARS-CoV-2-derived spike (S) epitopes in individuals immunized with the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. T cells specific for the S-QI9 and S-NF9 immunodominant epitopes have higher ability to recognize epitopes than other epitope-specific T cell populations. This higher recognition of S-QI9-specific T cells is due to the high stability of the S-QI9 peptide for HLA-A*24:02, whereas that of S-NF9-specific T cells results from the high affinity of T cell receptor. T cells specific for S-QI9 and S-NF9 are detectable >30 weeks after the second vaccination, indicating that the vaccine induces long-term memory T cells specific for these epitopes. Because the S-QI9 epitope is highly conserved among SARS-CoV-2 variants, S-QI9-specific T cells may help prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Medical subject headings
- COVID-19
- SARS-CoV-2