ArticleScience translational medicine2022
Escape from recognition of SARS-CoV-2 variant spike epitopes but overall preservation of T cell immunity.
Article in Science translational medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Role of previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 in protecting against omicron reinfections and severe complications of COVID-19 compared to pre-omicron variants: a systematic review.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Pooled it
- Adapted Live SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Elicits Rapid Mucosal Immunity, Protects From Disease, and Reduces Shedding of XBB.1.5.European journal of immunology · 2026Article
- Heterologous saRNA prime - multivalent protein boost strategy induces broad and durable immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- DNA origami vaccine nanoparticles improve humoral and cellular immune responses to infectious diseases.Nature biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- An Emerging Global Threat After The COVID-19 Pandemic: Monkeypox Similarities and Differences.Polish journal of microbiology · 2026Review
- Informing the Value of "Boosting" Immunocompetent Adults based on Immune Responses Among US Service Members to SARS-CoV-2 Variants in Late 2024.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticle enhances mRNA delivery and T cell-mediated immunity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cut or bind? Antigen-specific processing mechanisms define CD4Genome medicine · 2025Article
- Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses as a function of multiple COVID-19 boosters.Cell reports · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2: The Interplay Between Evolution and Host Immunity.Annual review of immunology · 2025Review
- The Impact of Vaccination Frequency on COVID-19 Public Health Outcomes: A Model-Based Analysis.Vaccines · 2025Article
- Circulating neutralizing antibodies and SARS-CoV-2 variant replication following postvaccination infections.JCI insight · 2025Article
- Enhanced and long-lasting SARS-CoV-2 immune memory in individuals with common cold coronavirus cross-reactive T cell immunity.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Enhanced mucosal SARS-CoV-2 immunity after heterologous intramuscular mRNA prime/intranasal protein boost vaccination with a combination adjuvant.Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy · 2024Article
- Protective effect and molecular mechanisms of human non-neutralizing cross-reactive spike antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Mucosal adenovirus vaccine boosting elicits IgA and durably prevents XBB.1.16 infection in nonhuman primates.Nature immunology · 2024Article
- A nonadjuvanted HLA-restricted peptide vaccine induced both T and B cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- T-cell responses to ancestral SARS-CoV-2 and Omicron variant among unvaccinated pregnant and postpartum women living with and without HIV in South Africa.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections enhance T cell response magnitude, breadth, and epitope repertoire.Cell reports. Medicine · 2024Article
- Protective effect and molecular mechanisms of human non-neutralizing cross-reactive spike antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
28 authors.
Funding
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 variants that escape neutralization and potentially affect vaccine efficacy have emerged. T cell responses play a role in protection from reinfection and severe disease, but the potential for spike mutations to affect T cell immunity is incompletely understood. We assessed neutralizing antibody and T cell responses in 44 South African COVID-19 patients either infected with the Beta variant (dominant from November 2020 to May 2021) or infected before its emergence (first wave, Wuhan strain) to provide an overall measure of immune evasion. We show that robust spike-specific CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were detectable in Beta-infected patients, similar to first-wave patients. Using peptides spanning the Beta-mutated regions, we identified CD4 T cell responses targeting the wild-type peptides in 12 of 22 first-wave patients, all of whom failed to recognize corresponding Beta-mutated peptides. However, responses to mutated regions formed only a small proportion (15.7%) of the overall CD4 response, and few patients (3 of 44) mounted CD8 responses that targeted the mutated regions. Among the spike epitopes tested, we identified three epitopes containing the D215, L18, or D80 residues that were specifically recognized by CD4 T cells, and their mutated versions were associated with a loss of response. This study shows that despite loss of recognition of immunogenic CD4 epitopes, CD4 and CD8 T cell responses to Beta are preserved overall. These observations may explain why several vaccines have retained the ability to protect against severe COVID-19 even with substantial loss of neutralizing antibody activity against Beta.
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