机构：[1]Institute of Immunology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China[2]Chongqing Public Health Medical Center, Chongqing, China[3]State Key Laboratory of VeterinaryBiotechnology, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China[4]College of Veterinary Medicine, NortheastAgricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China[5]Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China AgriculturalUniversity, Beijing, China[6]Cancer Center, The General Hospital of Western Theater Command, Chengdu, Sichuan, China[7]Comparative Immunology Research Center, Collegeof Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
The adaptive immunity that protects patients from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is not well characterized. In particular, the asymptomatic patients have been found to induce weak and transient SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown; meanwhile, the protective immunity that guide the recovery of these asymptomatic patients is elusive. Here, we characterized SARS-CoV-2-specific B-cell and T-cell responses in 10 asymptomatic patients and 64 patients with other disease severity (mild, n = 10, moderate, n = 32, severe, n = 12) and found that asymptomatic or mild symptomatic patients failed to mount virus-specific germinal center (GC) B cell responses that result in robust and prolonged humoral immunity, assessed by GC response indicators including follicular helper T (TFH) cell and memory B cell responses as well as serum CXCL13 levels. Alternatively, these patients mounted potent virus-specific TH1 and CD8+ T cell responses. In sharp contrast, patients of moderate or severe disease induced vigorous virus-specific GC B cell responses and associated TFH responses; however, the virus-specific TH1 and CD8+ T cells were minimally induced in these patients. These results, therefore, uncovered the protective immunity in asymptomatic patients and also revealed the strikingly dichotomous and incomplete humoral and cellular immune responses in COVID-19 patients with different disease severity, providing important insights into rational design of effective COVID-19 vaccines.
基金：
This work was supported by grants from the National Science and Technology Major
Project (No. 2017ZX10202102-006-002 to L.Y.), National Key Research Development Plan
(No.2016YFA0502202 to L.Ye), the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished
Young Scholars (No. 31825011 to L.Y.) and the Chongqing Special Research Project for
Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Prevention and Control (No. cstc2020jscx-2 to L.Y.; No.
cstc2020jscx-fyzx0074 to Y.C.; ocstc2020jscx-fyzx0135 to Y.C.).
第一作者机构：[1]Institute of Immunology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
共同第一作者：
通讯作者：
推荐引用方式(GB/T 7714)：
Gao Leiqiong,Zhou Jing,Yang Sen,et al.The dichotomous and incomplete adaptive immunity in COVID-19 patients with different disease severity.[J].Signal transduction and targeted therapy.2021,6(1):113.doi:10.1038/s41392-021-00525-3.
APA：
Gao Leiqiong,Zhou Jing,Yang Sen,Wang Lisha,Chen Xiangyu...&Ye Lilin.(2021).The dichotomous and incomplete adaptive immunity in COVID-19 patients with different disease severity..Signal transduction and targeted therapy,6,(1)
MLA：
Gao Leiqiong,et al."The dichotomous and incomplete adaptive immunity in COVID-19 patients with different disease severity.".Signal transduction and targeted therapy 6..1(2021):113
医学