Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand, Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Wellington 6242, New Zealand.
Viruses. 2021 Sep 23;13(10):1911. doi: 10.3390/v13101911.
At the end of 2019 a newly emerged betacoronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of severe pneumonia, subsequently termed COVID-19, in a number of patients in Wuhan, China. Subsequently, SARS-CoV-2 rapidly spread globally, resulting in a pandemic that has to date infected over 200 million individuals and resulted in more than 4.3 million deaths. While SARS-CoV-2 results in severe disease in 13.8%, with increasing frequency of severe disease with age, over 80% of infections are asymptomatic or mild. The immune response is an important determinant of outcome following SARS-CoV-2 infection. While B cell and T cell responses are associated with control of infection and protection against subsequent challenge with SARS-CoV-2, failure to control viral replication and the resulting hyperinflammation are associated with severe COVID-19. Towards the end of 2020, several variants of concern emerged that demonstrate increased transmissibility and/or evasion of immune responses from prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. This article reviews what is known about the humoral and cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and how mutation and structural/functional changes in the emerging variants of concern impact upon the immune protection from prior infection or vaccination.
2019 年末，一种新型的β冠状病毒——严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2），被确定为中国武汉地区一些患者中爆发的严重肺炎的病原体，随后将其命名为 COVID-19。此后，SARS-CoV-2 在全球迅速传播，导致了一场大流行，迄今为止已感染超过 2 亿人，并导致超过 430 万人死亡。虽然 SARS-CoV-2 导致 13.8%的患者出现严重疾病，且随着年龄的增长，严重疾病的发生率越来越高，但超过 80%的感染为无症状或轻症。免疫反应是 SARS-CoV-2 感染后结局的重要决定因素。虽然 B 细胞和 T 细胞反应与控制感染和防止随后受到 SARS-CoV-2 挑战有关，但未能控制病毒复制和由此导致的过度炎症与严重的 COVID-19 有关。2020 年末，出现了几种令人担忧的变异株，它们显示出更高的传染性和/或逃避先前 SARS-CoV-2 感染的免疫反应。本文综述了人们对 SARS-CoV-2 的体液和细胞免疫反应的了解，以及新出现的令人担忧的变异株中的突变和结构/功能变化如何影响先前感染或接种疫苗产生的免疫保护。
