Trial reportEBioMedicine2025
Vaccine-induced T cell responses correlate with reduced risk of severe COVID-19 in a placebo-controlled efficacy trial.
Trial report in EBioMedicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- FlowSpot Enables Decentralized Phenotypic and Functional Cellular Immune Profiling from Dried Blood Spots.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection incidence, risk factors, and antibody correlates in Belgian nursing homes residents and staff (2021-2022).Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Article
- Long-term cross-variant Fc-mediated immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 induced by a heterologous adenoviral/inactivated virus prime-boost vaccination strategy.NPJ vaccines · 2026Article
- mRNA COVID-19 vaccines: science versus misinformation.RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Potent and dose-sparing next-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, mRNA-1283, induces polyfunctional and durable T cell immunity.NPJ vaccines · 2026Article
- Effectiveness and feasibility of vaccination interventions for Indigenous and hard-to-reach populations in Latin America and the Caribbean: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Therapeutic advances in vaccines and immunotherapy · 2026Review
- COVID-19 mRNA vaccines: a prospective outlook from technological innovation to clinical practice.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- T and B cell responses following primary COVID-19 vaccination with CoronaVac and two heterologous BNT162b2 booster doses.mSphere · 2025Article
- Efficacy and validation of a clinical model to predict acute kidney injury in severe pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation in elderly patients: a multicenter retrospective observational analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhile vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2 antibodies provide partial protection against COVID-19, a significant question remains regarding the role of vaccine-induced T cells in combating COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether signatures of the T-cell response contribute to protection against (severe) COVID-19.
methodsT cell receptor (TCR) sequencing was conducted using pre-vaccination and 29 days post-vaccination PAXgene samples from 396 participants in the phase 3 efficacy trial, ENSEMBLE. The dataset consists of 198 individuals who developed breakthrough COVID-19 infections, including 23 severe cases, and an equal number of matched control subjects. Immunosequencing and subsequent computational analysis was performed to identify SARS-CoV-2 and Spike-specific TCRs to quantify SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell breadth, depth, clonal expansion, and a model test score that describes magnitude of cellular response compared to pre-pandemic controls.
findingsPreliminary analyses demonstrated high concordance and correlation between functional T cell responses measured by a standard intracellular cytokine staining and TCR sequencing metrics. Furthermore, vaccine-elicited T cell responses correlated inversely with the risk of developing severe COVID-19, while no strong relation was observed with overall symptomatic COVID-19 risk. A multivariable analysis including neutralizing antibody data and TCR scores indicated that, in addition to humoural responses, T cell responses contribute to protection against severe COVID-19.
interpretationOur findings show that higher vaccine-elicited T cell responses are significantly correlated with decreased risk of severe COVID-19, but not with risk of any symptomatic COVID-19. These results represent a direct correlation between vaccine-elicited T cell responses and protection from severe COVID-19.
fundingThis work was fully funded by Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. The samples were sourced from ENSEMBLE, which was partly funded by Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under other transaction agreement HHSO100201700018C.
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