Thread by @antigenomics

1/5 Was a great pleasure to collaborate with Grigory Efimov's @grigory_efimov lab on the analysis of T-cell repertoires in #COVID-19 patients, identifying public T-cell responses to #SARS-CoV-2 antigens in #COVID-19-exposed donors. Main findings of [medrxiv.org/content/10.110…] are:

2/5 While anti-#SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels can tell convalescent patients from healthy ones, T-cells can distinguish both convalescent patients and donors sampled during #COVID-19 pandemic from control donors sampled pre-pandemic.

3/5 Tetramer-sorting reveal hundreds of TCRs specific to two #SARS-CoV-2 epitopes, A*02:YLQ and A*02:RLQ. These TCRs display conserved motifs shared across patients. Short CDR3s and restricted gene usage suggests that epitope recognition is both germline-encoded and public.

4/5 Analysis of IFNg-producing T-cells stimulated by Spike protein of #SARS-CoV-2 reveals dozens of homologous TCR groups, some of them shared across multiple donors, suggesting a broad CD4 and CD8 response to a variety of viral epitopes in #COVID-19.

5/5 In summary: Assaying T-cell repertoires can be more sensitive in testing immune response to #SARS-CoV-2. A*02:YLQ/RLQ epitopes are viable targets for inducing strong T-cell response. Results for Spike protein-stimulated T-cells can help probing #COVID-19 immunity.