SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses are lower in children and increase with age and time after infection.

ABSTRACT: SARS-CoV-2 infection of children leads to a mild illness and the immunological differences with adults remains unclear. We quantified the SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses in adults and children (<13 years of age) with RT-PCR confirmed asymptomatic and symptomatic infection for long-term memory, phenotype and polyfunctional cytokines. Acute and memory CD4⁺ T cell responses to structural SARS-CoV-2 proteins significantly increased with age, whilst CD8⁺ T cell responses increased with time post infection. Infected children had significantly lower CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 structural and ORF1ab proteins compared to infected adults. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses were comparable in magnitude to uninfected n

SUBMITTER: Cohen CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7872365 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature