Early induction of functional SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells associates with rapid viral clearance and mild disease in COVID-19 patients

By A. Tan, M. Linster, C. Tan, N. Le Bert, W. Chia, Kamini Kunasegaran, Zhuang Yan, C. Tham, A. Chia, Gavin J. D. Smith and 6 more. Cell Reports, 2021

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Virus-specific humoral and cellular immunity act synergistically to protect the host from viral infection. We interrogate the dynamic changes of virological and immunological parameters in 12 patients with symptomatic acute SARS-CoV-2 infection from disease onset to convalescence or death. We quantify SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in the respiratory tract in parallel with antibodies and circulating T cells specific for various structural (nucleoprotein [NP], membrane [M], ORF3a, and spike) and non-structural (ORF7/8, NSP7, and NSP13) proteins. Although rapid induction and quantity of humoral responses associate with an increase in disease severity, early induction of interferon (IFN)-γ-secreting SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells is present in patients with mild disease and accelerated viral clearance. These findings provide support for the prognostic value of early functional SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells with important implications in vaccine design and immune monitoring.

Subfields: Infectious Diseases, Neurology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6e4bcd75172731a31935a4923279d3cebf9cef8d

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In Infectious Diseases

In Neurology

Shane Crotty

Citations in the corpus

Dengue and severe dengue (2025, positive): “Moreover, early memory T cell expansion correlates with rapid viral clearance and reduced disease severity (377–379).”
SARS-CoV-2 vaccination induces immunological T cell memory able to cross-recognize variants from Alpha to Omicron (2022, positive): “Several lines of evidence point to potential roles for T cells in reducing COVID-19 disease severity and contributing to disease protection (Gagne et al., 2021; Sette and Crotty, 2021; Tan et al., 2021).”