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Gussarow D, Bonifacius A, Cossmann A, Stankov MV, Mausberg P, Tischer-Zimmermann S, Gödecke N, Kalinke U, Behrens GMN, Blasczyk R, Eiz-Vesper B. Long-Lasting Immunity Against SARS-CoV-2: Dream or Reality? Front Med (Lausanne) 2021; 8:770381. [PMID: 34901085 PMCID: PMC8656217 DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2021.770381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 10/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Since its declaration as a pandemic in March 2020, SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 217 million people worldwide and despite mild disease in the majority of the cases, more than 4.5 million cases of COVID-19-associated death have been reported as of September 2021. The question whether recovery from COVID-19 results in prevention of reinfection can be answered with a "no" since cases of reinfections have been reported. The more important question is whether during SARS-CoV-2 infection, a protective immunity is built and maintained afterwards in a way which protects from possibly severe courses of disease in case of a reinfection. A similar question arises with respect to vaccination: as of September 2021, globally, more than 5.2 billion doses of vaccines have been administered. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to study the cellular and humoral immunity toward SARS-CoV-2 in a longitudinal manner. In this study, reconvalescent COVID-19 patients have been followed up for more than 1 year after SARS-CoV-2 infection to characterize in detail the long-term humoral as well as cellular immunity. Both SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells and antibodies could be detected for a period of more than 1 year after infection, indicating that the immune protection established during initial infection is maintained and might possibly protect from severe disease in case of reinfection or infection with novel emerging variants. Moreover, these data demonstrate the opportunity for immunotherapy of hospitalized COVID-19 patients via adoptive transfer of functional antiviral T cells isolated from reconvalescent individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Gussarow
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Agnes Bonifacius
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Anne Cossmann
- Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Metodi V. Stankov
- Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Philip Mausberg
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Sabine Tischer-Zimmermann
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Nina Gödecke
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Ulrich Kalinke
- Institute for Experimental Infection Research, TWINCORE, Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, A Joint Venture Between the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence - Resolving Infection Susceptibility (RESIST, EXC 2155), Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Georg M. N. Behrens
- Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
- Institute for Experimental Infection Research, TWINCORE, Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, A Joint Venture Between the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and the Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Rainer Blasczyk
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Britta Eiz-Vesper
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
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Bonifacius A, Tischer-Zimmermann S, Dragon AC, Gussarow D, Vogel A, Krettek U, Gödecke N, Yilmaz M, Kraft ARM, Hoeper MM, Pink I, Schmidt JJ, Li Y, Welte T, Maecker-Kolhoff B, Martens J, Berger MM, Lobenwein C, Stankov MV, Cornberg M, David S, Behrens GMN, Witzke O, Blasczyk R, Eiz-Vesper B. COVID-19 immune signatures reveal stable antiviral T cell function despite declining humoral responses. Immunity 2021; 54:340-354.e6. [PMID: 33567252 PMCID: PMC7871825 DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2021.01.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 145] [Impact Index Per Article: 48.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2020] [Revised: 11/12/2020] [Accepted: 01/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Cellular and humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is critical to control primary infection and correlates with severity of disease. The role of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity, its relationship to antibodies, and pre-existing immunity against endemic coronaviruses (huCoV), which has been hypothesized to be protective, were investigated in 82 healthy donors (HDs), 204 recovered (RCs), and 92 active COVID-19 patients (ACs). ACs had high amounts of anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike IgG but lymphopenia and overall reduced antiviral T cell responses due to the inflammatory milieu, expression of inhibitory molecules (PD-1, Tim-3) as well as effector caspase-3, -7, and -8 activity in T cells. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity conferred by polyfunctional, mainly interferon-γ-secreting CD4+ T cells remained stable throughout convalescence, whereas humoral responses declined. Immune responses toward huCoV in RCs with mild disease and strong cellular SARS-CoV-2 T cell reactivity imply a protective role of pre-existing immunity against huCoV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnes Bonifacius
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Sabine Tischer-Zimmermann
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Anna C Dragon
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Daniel Gussarow
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Alexander Vogel
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Ulrike Krettek
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Nina Gödecke
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | | | - Anke R M Kraft
- Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Hannover-Braunschweig, Germany; Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM), Hannover, Germany
| | - Marius M Hoeper
- Department of Pneumology, Hannover Medical School, member of the German Centre for Lung Research (DZL), Hannover, Germany
| | - Isabell Pink
- Department of Pneumology, Hannover Medical School, member of the German Centre for Lung Research (DZL), Hannover, Germany
| | - Julius J Schmidt
- Department of Kidney and Hypertension Diseases, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Yang Li
- Department Computational Biology for Individualised Medicine, Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM), Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Tobias Welte
- Department of Pneumology, Hannover Medical School, member of the German Centre for Lung Research (DZL), Hannover, Germany
| | - Britta Maecker-Kolhoff
- Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Jörg Martens
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Marc Moritz Berger
- Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Corinna Lobenwein
- Department of Infectious Diseases, West German Centre of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany
| | - Metodi V Stankov
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Hannover-Braunschweig, Germany; Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Markus Cornberg
- Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Hannover-Braunschweig, Germany; Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM), Hannover, Germany
| | - Sascha David
- Department of Kidney and Hypertension Diseases, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Institute of Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Georg M N Behrens
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Hannover-Braunschweig, Germany; Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Oliver Witzke
- Department of Infectious Diseases, West German Centre of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany
| | - Rainer Blasczyk
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Britta Eiz-Vesper
- Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
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