Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for over 6 months after infection

Jennifer M Dan, Jose Mateus, View ORCID ProfileYu Kato, Kathryn M Hastie, Caterina Faliti, Sydney I Ramirez, April Frazier, Esther D Yu, Alba Grifoni, Stephen A Rawlings, Bjoern Peters, Florian Krammer, Viviana Simon, Erica O Saphire, Davey Smith, Daniela Weiskopf, Alessandro Sette, View ORCID ProfileShane Crotty

doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.15.383323

This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?].

PDF: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.15.383323v1.full.pdf

Abstract

Understanding immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 is critical for improving diagnostics and vaccines, and for assessing the likely future course of the pandemic. We analyzed multiple compartments of circulating immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 in 185 COVID-19 cases, including 41 cases at > 6 months post-infection. Spike IgG was relatively stable over 6+ months. Spike-specific memory B cells were more abundant at 6 months than at 1 month. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells declined with a half-life of 3-5 months. By studying antibody, memory B cell, CD4+ T cell, and CD8+ T cell memory to SARS-CoV-2 in an integrated manner, we observed that each component of SARS-CoV-2 immune memory exhibited distinct kinetics.

Competing Interest Statement

A.S. is a consultant for Gritstone, Flow Pharma, Merck, Epitogenesis, Gilead and Avalia. S.C. is a consultant for Avalia. LJI has filed for patent protection for various aspects of T cell epitope and vaccine design work. Mount Sinai has licensed serological assays to commercial entities and has filed for patent protection for serological assays. D.S., F.A., V.S. and F.K. are listed as inventors on the pending patent application (F.K., V.S.), and Newcastle disease virus (NDV)-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines that name F.K. as inventor. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.15.383323v1