| First Author | Joag V | Year | 2021 |
| Journal | J Immunol | Volume | 206 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 931-935 |
| PubMed ID | 33441437 | Mgi Jnum | J:303898 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6515412 | Doi | 10.4049/jimmunol.2001400 |
| Citation | Joag V, et al. (2021) Cutting Edge: Mouse SARS-CoV-2 Epitope Reveals Infection and Vaccine-Elicited CD8 T Cell Responses. J Immunol 206(5):931-935 |
| abstractText | The magnitude of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses correlates inversely with human disease severity, suggesting T cell involvement in primary control. Whereas many COVID-19 vaccines focus on establishing humoral immunity to viral spike protein, vaccine-elicited T cell immunity may bolster durable protection or cross-reactivity with viral variants. To better enable mechanistic and vaccination studies in mice, we identified a dominant CD8 T cell SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein epitope. Infection of human ACE2 transgenic mice with SARS-CoV-2 elicited robust responses to H2-D(b)/N219-227, and 40% of HLA-A*02(+) COVID-19 PBMC samples isolated from hospitalized patients responded to this peptide in culture. In mice, i.m. prime-boost nucleoprotein vaccination with heterologous vectors favored systemic CD8 T cell responses, whereas intranasal boosting favored respiratory immunity. In contrast, a single i.v. immunization with recombinant adenovirus established robust CD8 T cell memory both systemically and in the respiratory mucosa. |
