SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory with common TCRαβ motifs is established in unvaccinated children who seroconvert after infection
Authors:
- Rowntree, Louise C.
- Nguyen, Thi H.O.
- Kedzierski, Lukasz
- Neeland, Melanie R.
- Petersen, Jan
- Crawford, Jeremy Chase
- Allen, Lilith F.
- Clemens, E. Bridie
- Chua, Brendon
- McQuilten, Hayley A.
- Minervina, Anastasia A.
- Pogorelyy, Mikhail V.
- Chaurasia, Priyanka
- Tan, Hyon-Xhi
- Wheatley, Adam K.
- Jia, Xiaoxiao
- Amanat, Fatima
- Krammer, Florian
- Allen, E. Kaitlynn
- Sonda, Sabrina
- Flanagan, Katie L.
- Jumarang, Jaycee
- Pannaraj, Pia S.
- Licciardi, Paul V.
- Kent, Stephen J.
- Bond, Katherine A.
- Williamson, Deborah A.
- Rossjohn, Jamie
- Thomas, Paul G.
- Tosif, Shidan
- Crawford, Nigel W.
- van de Sandt, Carolien E.
- Kedzierska, Katherine
Details:
Immunity, Volume 55, Issue 7, 2022-07-12
Article Link: Click here
As the establishment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific T cell memory in children remains largely unexplored, we recruited convalescent COVID-19 children and adults to define their circulating memory SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells prior to vaccination. We analyzed epitope-specific T cells directly ex vivo using seven HLA class I and class II tetramers presenting SARS-CoV-2 epitopes, together with Spike-specific B cells. Unvaccinated children who seroconverted had comparable Spike-specific but lower ORF1a- and N-specific memory T cell responses compared with adults. This agreed with our TCR sequencing data showing reduced clonal expansion in children. A strong stem cell memory phenotype and common T cell receptor motifs were detected within tetramer-specific T cells in seroconverted children. Conversely, children who did not seroconvert had tetramer-specific T cells of predominantly naive phenotypes and diverse TCRαβ repertoires. Our study demonstrates the generation of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory with common TCRαβ motifs in unvaccinated seroconverted children after their first virus encounter.