Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to eight months after infection.
Jennifer M. Dan, José Mateus, Yu Kato, Kathryn M. Hastie, Esther Dawen Yu, Caterina E. Faliti, Alba Grifoni, Sydney I. Ramirez, Sonya Haupt, April Frazier, Catherine Nakao, Vamseedhar Rayaprolu, Stephen A. Rawlings, Bjoern Peters, Florian Krammer, Viviana Simon, Erica Ollmann Saphire, Davey M. Smith, Daniela Weiskopf, Alessandro Sette, Shane Crotty
Abstract
Understanding immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 is critical for improving diagnostics and vaccines, and for assessing the likely future course of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed multiple compartments of circulating immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 in 254 samples from 188 COVID-19 cases, including 43 samples at ≥ 6 months post-infection. IgG to the Spike protein was relatively stable over 6+ months. Spike-specific memory B cells were more abundant at 6 months than at 1 month post symptom onset. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4 + T cells and CD8 + T cells declined with a half-life of 3-5 months. By studying antibody, memory B cell, CD4 + T cell, and CD8 + T cell memory to SARS-CoV-2 in an integrated manner, we observed that each component of SARS-CoV-2 immune memory exhibited distinct kinetics.