Human Genetics Lab, Altamedica, Rome, Italy.
Department of Prenatal Diagnosis, Fetal-Maternal Medical Centre, Altamedica, Rome, Italy.
Viral Immunol. 2023 Jun;36(5):343-350. doi: 10.1089/vim.2022.0197. Epub 2023 May 4.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), rapidly resulted in a pandemic constituting a global health emergency. As an indicator of long-term immune protection from reinfection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the presence of memory B cells (MBCs) should be evaluated. Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, several variants of concerns have been detected, including Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1/B.1.1.28.1), Delta (B.1.617.2), and Omicron (BA.1) variants with several different mutations, causing serious concern regarding the increased frequency of reinfection, and limiting the effectiveness of the vaccine response. At this regard, we investigated SARS-CoV-2-specific cellular immune responses in four different cohorts: COVID-19, COVID-19 infected and vaccinated, vaccinated, and negative subjects. We found that MBC response to SARS-CoV-2 at more than 11 months postinfection was higher in the peripheral blood of all COVID-19 infected and vaccinated subjects respect to all the other groups. Moreover, to better characterize the differences of SARS-CoV-2 variants immune responses, we genotyped SARS-CoV-2-positive samples from the patients' cohort. We found a higher level of immunoglobulin M+ (IgM+) and IgG+ spike MBCs in SARS-CoV-2-positive patients (5-8 months after symptoms onset) infected with the SARS-CoV-2-Delta variant compared with the SARS-CoV-2-Omicron variant implying a higher immune memory response. Our findings showed that MBCs persist more than 11 months after primary infection indicating a different involvement of the immune system according to the different SARS-CoV-2 variant that infected the host.
新型严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2)引起的 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19)迅速导致大流行,构成全球卫生紧急事件。记忆 B 细胞 (MBC)的存在作为长期免受 SARS-CoV-2 病毒再感染的免疫保护指标,应进行评估。自 COVID-19 大流行开始以来,已经检测到几种关切的变体,包括 Alpha (B.1.1.7)、Beta (B.1.351)、Gamma (P.1/B.1.1.28.1)、Delta (B.1.617.2)和 Omicron (BA.1)变体,具有多种不同的突变,这引起了对再感染频率增加的严重关注,并限制了疫苗反应的有效性。在这方面,我们研究了四个不同队列的 SARS-CoV-2 特异性细胞免疫反应:COVID-19、感染和接种疫苗的 COVID-19、接种疫苗和阴性的受试者。我们发现,与所有其他组相比,感染和接种疫苗的 COVID-19 受试者外周血中 SARS-CoV-2 的 MBC 反应在感染后 11 个月以上更高。此外,为了更好地描述 SARS-CoV-2 变体免疫反应的差异,我们对来自患者队列的 SARS-CoV-2 阳性样本进行了基因分型。我们发现 SARS-CoV-2-Delta 变体感染的 SARS-CoV-2 阳性患者(症状出现后 5-8 个月)中,免疫球蛋白 M+ (IgM+)和 IgG+刺突 MBC 水平较高,与 SARS-CoV-2-Omicron 变体相比,这表明免疫记忆反应更高。我们的研究结果表明,MBC 在初次感染后持续超过 11 个月,这表明根据感染宿主的不同 SARS-CoV-2 变体,免疫系统的参与不同。
Salud Publica Mex. 2023-12-8