Oligosymptomatic long-term carriers of SARS-CoV-2 display impaired innate resistance but increased high-affinity anti-spike antibodies.

ABSTRACT: The vast spectrum of clinical features of COVID-19 keeps challenging scientists and clinicians. Low resistance to infection might result in long-term viral persistence, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we studied the immune response of immunocompetent COVID-19 patients with prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection by immunophenotyping, cytokine and serological analysis. Despite viral loads and symptoms comparable to regular mildly symptomatic patients, long-term carriers displayed weaker systemic IFN-I responses and fewer circulating pDCs and NK cells at disease onset. Type 1 cytokines remained low, while type-3 cytokines were in turn enhanced. Of interest, we observed no defects in antigen-specific cytotoxic T cell responses, and circulating antibodies displayed higher affinity a

SUBMITTER: Montes-Cobos E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10300054 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature