Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Franciscus Gasthuis & Vlietland, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Center for Experimental and Molecular Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam Infection and Immunity Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Franciscus Gasthuis & Vlietland, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
J Virol Methods. 2024 Jun;327:114949. doi: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2024.114949. Epub 2024 May 6.
T cell immunity plays a pivotal role in mitigating the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Therefore, reliable functional T cell assays are required to evaluate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific T cell immunity in specific patient populations.
We recruited a cohort of 23 healthcare workers who received their bivalent Omicron BA.1 / ancestral mRNA booster vaccination or were infected with the Omicron variant at a median of 144 days and 227 days before blood collection, respectively. In this cohort, we compared the performances of two widely utilized commercial SARS-CoV-2 interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs), i.e., QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 and T-SPOT.COVID, and an in-house designed Omicron enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot).
The QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 and T-SPOT.COVID assays detected SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific T cells in 34.8 % and 21.7 % of participants, respectively. Moreover, our in-house designed ELISpot that included Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 full-spike peptides detected T cell responses in 47.8 % of participants and was strongly associated with the T-SPOT.COVID.
The evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 T cell immunity using commercially accessible assays may yield disparate outcomes as results from different assays are not directly comparable. A specific Omicron ELISpot should be considered to assess Omicron-specific T cell immunity.
T 细胞免疫在减轻 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的严重程度方面起着关键作用。因此，需要可靠的功能性 T 细胞检测来评估特定患者人群中严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）特异性 T 细胞免疫。
我们招募了一组 23 名医护人员，他们分别在接种二价奥密克戎 BA.1/原始 mRNA 加强针或感染奥密克戎变异株的中位数 144 天和 227 天前采集了血液。在该队列中，我们比较了两种广泛使用的商业 SARS-CoV-2 干扰素-γ释放检测（IGRAs），即 QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 和 T-SPOT.COVID，以及我们内部设计的奥密克戎酶联免疫斑点（ELISpot）。
QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 和 T-SPOT.COVID 检测分别在 34.8%和 21.7%的参与者中检测到 SARS-CoV-2 刺突特异性 T 细胞。此外，我们内部设计的包含奥密克戎 BA.4 和 BA.5 全长刺突肽的 ELISpot 在 47.8%的参与者中检测到 T 细胞反应，与 T-SPOT.COVID 呈强关联。
使用商业上可获得的检测评估 SARS-CoV-2 T 细胞免疫可能会产生不同的结果，因为不同检测的结果不能直接比较。应考虑特定的奥密克戎 ELISpot 来评估奥密克戎特异性 T 细胞免疫。
