Understanding the landscape of the SARS‐CoV‐2‐specific T cells post‐omicron surge
Emerging evidence shows increased humoral response post-omicron surge, but research on T cell responses is limited. This study investigated the durability, magnitude, and breadth of SARS-CoV-2-spike-specific T cell responses in 216 two-dose vaccinated individuals pre- and post-omicron surge. Post-surge samples showed enhanced T cell responses, indicating widespread asymptomatic exposure to omicron. Further analysis of 105 individuals with multiple exposures to SARS-CoV-2 through boosters or infections showed that post-omicron, two-dose vaccinated individuals had T cell responses comparable to those of COVID-19 convalescents or boosted individuals. Additionally, we report cross-reactive T cell responses against omicron sub-variants, including BA2.86, remained strong, with preserved frequencies of spike-specific stem-cell-like memory T cells. In silico prediction indicates that mutated epitopes of JN.1 and KP.2 retain over 95.6% of their HLA binding capability. Overall, our data suggests that T cell responses are sustained, enhanced, and cross-reactive against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants following symptomatic or asymptomatic omicron infection.
Authors
- Pallavi Kshetrapal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6219-5155)
- Shinjini Bhatnagar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1703-5296)
- Nitya Wadhwa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9435-1842)
- Anil Kumar Pandey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0078-4656)
- Pramod Kumar Garg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7015-4396)
- Mudita Gosain (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2660-7578)
- Gaurav Batra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1669-4310)
- Akshay Binayke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9808-9036)
- Upasna Madan
- Aymaan Zaheer
- Amit Awasthi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2563-1971)
- Souvick Chattopadhyay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5198-4615)
- Siddhesh Vishwakarma
- Jyotsana Kaushal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2644-6727)
- Jyotsna Dandotiya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7217-5980)
- Sreevatsan Raghavan
- Priyanka Sharma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8853-1126)
- Savita Singh
Institutions
- Jawaharlal Nehru University (IN)
- Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (IN)
- ESIC Hospital (IN)
- All India Institute of Medical Sciences (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Medical Virology
- Published
- 2024-08-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.29877
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.17
Funders
- Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
- Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council