Evolution of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4⁺ T cell epitopes.

ABSTRACT: Vaccination clearly decreases coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality; however, they also impose selection pressure on the virus, which promotes the evolution of immune escape variants. For example, despite the high vaccination level in especially Western countries, the Omicron variant caused millions of breakthrough infections, suggesting that the highly mutated spike protein in the Omicron variant can escape antibody immunity much more efficiently than the other variants of concern (VOCs). In this study, we investigated the resistance/susceptibility of T helper cell responses that are necessary for generating efficient long-lasting antibody immunity, in several VOCs. By predicting T helper cell epitopes on the spike protein for most common HLA-DRB1 alleles worldwide, we found that

SUBMITTER: Brand M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9887569 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature