Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) represent an emerging global crisis. However, quantifiable risk-factors for PASC and their biological associations are poorly resolved. We executed a deep multi-omic, longitudinal investigation of 309 COVID-19 patients from initial diagnosis to convalescence (2-3 months later), integrated with clinical data, and patient-reported symptoms. We resolved four PASC-anticipating risk factors at the time of initial COVID-19 diagnosis: type 2 diabetes, SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia, Epstein-Barr virus viremia, and specific autoantibodies. In patients with gastrointestinal PASC, SARS-CoV-2-specific and CMV-specific CD8
+
T cells exhibited unique dynamics during recovery from COVID-19. Analysis of symptom-associated immunological signatures revealed coordinated immunity polarization into four endotypes exhibiting divergent acute severity and PASC. We find that immunological associations between PASC factors diminish over time leading to distinct convalescent immune states. Detectability of most PASC factors at COVID-19 diagnosis emphasizes the importance of early disease measurements for understanding emergent chronic conditions and suggests PASC treatment strategies.
SUMMARYNeoantigen-specific T cells are increasingly viewed as important
immunotherapy effectors, but physically isolating these rare cell populations is
challenging. Here, we describe a sensitive method for the enumeration and
isolation of neoantigen-specific CD8+ T cells from small samples of patient
tumor or blood. The method relies on magnetic nanoparticles that present
neoantigen-loaded major histocompatibility complex (MHC) tetramers at high
avidity by barcoded DNA linkers. The magnetic particles provide a convenient
handle to isolate the desired cell populations, and the barcoded DNA enables
multiplexed analysis. The method exhibits superior recovery of antigen-specific
T cell populations relative to literature approaches. We applied the method to
profile neoantigen-specific T cell populations in the tumor and blood of
patients with metastatic melanoma over the course of anti-PD1 checkpoint
inhibitor therapy. We show that the method has value for monitoring clinical
responses to cancer immunotherapy and might help guide the development of
personalized mutational neoantigen-specific T cell therapies and cancer
vaccines.
We report here on antigens from the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein, that when presented by Class I MHC, can lead to cytotoxic CD8 + T cell anti-viral responses in COVID-19 patients. We present a method in which the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is converted into a library of peptide antigen-Major Histocompatibility Complexes (pMHCs) as single chain trimers that contain the peptide antigen, the MHC HLA allele subunit, and the β-2 microglobulin subunit. This library is used to detect the evolution of virus-specific T cell populations in four COVID-19 study participants two of which share one HLA allele, and the other two a second HLA allele, at two time points over the initial course of infection. HLA-matched participants exhibit similar virusspecific T cell populations, but very different time-trajectories of those populations. This strategy can be used to track those virus-specific T cell populations over the course of an infection, thus providing deep insight into the SARS-CoV-2 immune system trajectories observed in different COVID-19 patients.
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