SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory with common TCRαβ motifs is established in unvaccinated children who seroconvert after infection

Rowntree, Louise C., Nguyen, Thi H.O., Kedzierski, Lukasz, Neeland, Melanie R., Petersen, Jan, Crawford, Jeremy Chase, Allen, Lilith F., Clemens, E. Bridie, Chua, Brendon, McQuilten, Hayley A., Minervina, Anastasia A., Pogorelyy, Mikhail V., Chaurasia, Priyanka, Tan, Hyon-Xhi, Wheatley, Adam K., Jia, Xiaoxiao, Amanat, Fatima, Krammer, Florian, Allen, E. Kaitlynn, Sonda, Sabrina, Flanagan, Katie L., Jumarang, Jaycee, Pannaraj, Pia S., Licciardi, Paul V., Kent, Stephen J., Bond, Katherine A., Williamson, Deborah A., Rossjohn, Jamie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2020-7522, Thomas, Paul G., Tosif, Shidan, Crawford, Nigel W., van de Sandt, Carolien E. and Kedzierska, Katherine 2022. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory with common TCRαβ motifs is established in unvaccinated children who seroconvert after infection. Immunity 55 (7) , pp. 1299-1315. 10.1016/j.immuni.2022.06.003

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Abstract

As establishment of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory in children remains largely unexplored, we recruited convalescent COVID-19 children and adults to define their circulating memory SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells prior to vaccination. We analysed epitope-specific T cells directly ex vivo using seven HLA class-I and class-II tetramers presenting SARS-CoV-2 epitopes, together with Spike-specific B cells. Unvaccinated children who seroconverted had comparable spike-specific, but lower ORF1a- and N-specific memory T cell responses compared to adults. This agreed with our TCR sequencing data showing reduced clonal expansion in children. A strong stem cell memory phenotype and common T cell receptor motifs were detected within tetramer-specific T cells in seroconverted children. Conversely, children who did not seroconvert had tetramer-specific T cells of predominantly naïve phenotypes and diverse TCRαβ repertoires. Our study demonstrates generation of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory with common TCRαβ motifs in unvaccinated seroconverted children after their first virus encounter.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Additional Information:	This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	1074-7613
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	13 June 2022
Date of Acceptance:	1 June 2022
Last Modified:	06 May 2023 15:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/150464

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