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Buhler S, Sollet ZC, Bettens F, Schäfer A, Ansari M, Ferrari-Lacraz S, Villard J. HLA variants and TCR diversity against SARS-CoV-2 in the pre-COVID-19 era. HLA 2023; 102:720-730. [PMID: 37461808 DOI: 10.1111/tan.15158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Revised: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/11/2023]
Abstract
HLA antigen presentation and T-cell mediated immunity are critical to control acute viral infection such as COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. Recent data suggest that both the depth of peptide presentation and the breadth of the T-cell repertoire are associated with disease outcome. It has also been shown that unexposed subjects can develop strong T-cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 due to heterologous immunity. In this study, we explored the anti-SARS-CoV-2 T-cell repertoire by analyzing previously published T-cell receptor (TCR) CDR3β immunosequencing data in a cohort of 116 healthy donors and in the context of immune reconstitution after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in 116 recipients collected during the pre-COVID-19 era. For this, 143,310 publicly available SARS-CoV-2 specific T-cell sequences were investigated among the 3.5 million clonotypes in the cohort. We also performed HLA class I peptide binding predictions using the reference proteome of the virus and high resolution genotyping data in these patients. We could demonstrate that individuals are fully equipped at the genetic level to recognize SARS-CoV-2. This is evidenced by the 5% median cumulative frequency of clonotypes having their sequence matched to a SARS-CoV-2 specific T-cell. In addition, any combination of HLA class I variants in this cohort is associated with a broad capacity of presenting hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 derived peptides. These results could be explained by heterologous immunity and random somatic TCR recombination. We speculate that these observations could explain the efficacy of the specific immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in individuals without risk factors of immunodeficiency and infected prior to vaccination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Buhler
- Transplantation Immunology Unit and National Reference Laboratory for Histocompatibility, Department of Diagnostic, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Zuleika Calderin Sollet
- Transplantation Immunology Unit and National Reference Laboratory for Histocompatibility, Department of Diagnostic, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Florence Bettens
- Transplantation Immunology Unit and National Reference Laboratory for Histocompatibility, Department of Diagnostic, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Antonia Schäfer
- Transplantation Immunology Unit and National Reference Laboratory for Histocompatibility, Department of Diagnostic, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Marc Ansari
- CANSEARCH Research Platform for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Gynecology and Obstetrics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Division of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Department of Women, Child and Adolescent, University Geneva Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Sylvie Ferrari-Lacraz
- Transplantation Immunology Unit and National Reference Laboratory for Histocompatibility, Department of Diagnostic, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Jean Villard
- Transplantation Immunology Unit and National Reference Laboratory for Histocompatibility, Department of Diagnostic, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
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