Cutting Edge: Mouse SARS-CoV-2 Epitope Reveals Infection and Vaccine-Elicited CD8 T Cell Responses
- 13 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by The American Association of Immunologists in The Journal of Immunology
- Vol. 206 (5), 931-935
- https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.2001400
Abstract
The magnitude of SARS-CoV-2–specific T cell responses correlates inversely with human disease severity, suggesting T cell involvement in primary control. Whereas many COVID-19 vaccines focus on establishing humoral immunity to viral spike protein, vaccine-elicited T cell immunity may bolster durable protection or cross-reactivity with viral variants. To better enable mechanistic and vaccination studies in mice, we identified a dominant CD8 T cell SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein epitope. Infection of human ACE2 transgenic mice with SARS-CoV-2 elicited robust responses to H2-Db/N219-227, and 40% of HLA-A*02+ COVID-19 PBMC samples isolated from hospitalized patients responded to this peptide in culture. In mice, i.m. prime-boost nucleoprotein vaccination with heterologous vectors favored systemic CD8 T cell responses, whereas intranasal boosting favored respiratory immunity. In contrast, a single i.v. immunization with recombinant adenovirus established robust CD8 T cell memory both systemically and in the respiratory mucosa.Keywords
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