Early Functional SARS-CoV-2 Specific T Cell Response may Prevent Severe Infection: Study

The early induction of T cells characterizes patients who control SARS-Cov-2 or COVID-19 infection with only mild symptoms.

The team of researchers has investigated the changes in virological and immunological parameters in 12 patients with symptomatic acute SARS-CoV-2 infection from onset of the disease to recovery or death at Duke-NUS.

"We found that patients who control SARS-Cov-2 infection with only mild symptoms are characterised by an early induction of IFN-£^ secreting SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells. The amount of humoral response, however, does not predict the level of COVID-19 disease severity," said Dr Anthony Tanoto Tan, Senior Research Fellow at the Duke-NUS' Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) programme and the co-author of this study.

Coronavirus
Coronaviruses infect animals, humans, and birds. Human coronaviruses, such as SARS, MERS, and 2019-nCoV cause respiratory distress and even death. The S protein is the infectious agent of the virus.

‘Studying how the immune mechanisms mediate SARS-CoV-2 infections could help control the progression of the disease.’

"Our data supports the idea that SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells play an important role in the rapid control of viral infection and eventual clearance of the disease," added Dr Martin Linster, Senior Research Fellow with Duke-NUS' EID programme and the co-author of this study.

This work is a continuation of the team's previous publication in Nature, where they analysed SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell response in COVID-19 patients at convalescence. In this study, they have expanded the analysis to the full timeline of SARS-CoV-2 infection from onset to outcome.

"It is time that T cell monitoring should be considered in providing a comprehensive understanding of the immune response against SARS-CoV-2. This would also mean that a vaccine will likely be more effective if a holistic induction of both antibodies and T cells occurs," said Professor Antonio Bertoletti, from Duke-NUS' EID programme, who is the corresponding author of this study.

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"This important study furthers our understanding of the immune response against SARS-CoV-2. It has far-reaching implications including on COVID-19 vaccine design and the subsequent monitoring of vaccine response," said Professor Patrick Casey, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS.

The team is now studying more symptomatic COVID-19 patients with varying disease severity to further validate their findings.

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Source-Eurekalert

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