| Title | Selective and cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes in unexposed humans. | ||
| Author | Mateus, Jose; Grifoni, Alba; Tarke, Alison; Sidney, John; Ramirez, Sydney I; Dan, Jennifer M; Burger, Zoe C; Rawlings, Stephen A; Smith, Davey M; Phillips, Elizabeth; Mallal, Simon; Lammers, Marshall; Rubiro, Paul; Quiambao, Lorenzo; Sutherland, Aaron; Yu, Esther Dawen; da Silva Antunes, Ricardo; Greenbaum, Jason; Frazier, April; Markmann, Alena J; Premkumar, Lakshmanane; de Silva, Aravinda; Peters, Bjoern; Crotty, Shane; Sette, Alessandro; Weiskopf, Daniela | ||
| Journal | Science | Publication Year/Month | 2020-Oct |
| PMID | 32753554 | PMCID | PMC7574914 |
| Affiliation + expend | 1.Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. | ||
Many unknowns exist about human immune responses to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. SARS-CoV-2-reactive CD4(+) T cells have been reported in unexposed individuals, suggesting preexisting cross-reactive T cell memory in 20 to 50% of people. However, the source of those T cells has been speculative. Using human blood samples derived before the SARS-CoV-2 virus was discovered in 2019, we mapped 142 T cell epitopes across the SARS-CoV-2 genome to facilitate precise interrogation of the SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4(+) T cell repertoire. We demonstrate a range of preexisting memory CD4(+) T cells that are cross-reactive with comparable affinity to SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold coronaviruses human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43, HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, and HCoV-HKU1. Thus, variegated T cell memory to coronaviruses that cause the common cold may underlie at least some of the extensive heterogeneity observed in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease.