Airway-resident T cells from unexposed individuals cross-recognize SARS-CoV-2

Journal article

T cells can contribute to clearance of respiratory viruses that cause acute-resolving infections such as SARS-CoV-2, helping to provide long-lived protection against disease. Recent studies have suggested an additional role for T cells in resisting overt infection: pre-existing cross-reactive responses were preferentially enriched in healthcare workers who had abortive infections1, and in household contacts protected from infection2. We hypothesize that such early viral control would require pre-existing cross-reactive memory T cells already resident at the site of infection; such airway-resident responses have been shown to be critical for mediating protection after intranasal vaccination in a murine model of SARS-CoV3. Bronchoalveolar lavage samples from the lower respiratory tract of healthy donors obtained before the COVID-19 pandemic revealed airway-resident, SARS-CoV-2-cross-reactive T cells, which correlated with the strength of human seasonal coronavirus immunity. We therefore demonstrate the potential to harness functional airway-resident SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells in next-generation mucosal vaccines

Authors: Diniz, MO; Mitsi, E; Swadling, L; Rylance, J; Johnson, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature Immunology
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 1324-1329
• Publication date: 2022-08-29
• DOI: 10.1038/s41590-022-01292-1
• EISSN: 1529-2916
• ISSN: 1529-2908
• Language: English
• Keywords: Airway; Sars virus; 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak; Betacoronavirus; Pandemic; Disease; Biology; Outbreak; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); Medicine; Virology; Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Infectious disease (medical specialty); Immunology; Pathology