Profiling CD8⁺ T cell epitopes of COVID-19 convalescents reveals reduced cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants.

ABSTRACT: Cellular immunity is important in determining the disease severity of COVID-19 patients. However, current understanding of SARS-CoV-2 epitopes mediating cellular immunity is limited. Here we apply T-Scan, a recently developed method, to identify CD8⁺ T cell epitopes from COVID-19 patients of four major HLA-A alleles. Several identified epitopes are conserved across human coronaviruses, which might mediate pre-existing cellular immunity to SARS-CoV-2. In addition, we identify and validate four epitopes that were mutated in the newly circulating variants, including the Delta variant. The mutations significantly reduce T cell responses to the epitope peptides in convalescent and vaccinated samples. We further determine the crystal structure of HLA-A^∗02:01/HLA-A^∗

SUBMITTER: Zhang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8390359 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature