Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It has caused millions of infections and deaths globally over a 2-year period. Some populations including those living with HIV and/or cancer are reported to be at a higher risk of infection and severe disease. HIV infection leads to a depletion of CD4 + T cells which impairs cell-mediated immunity and increases the risk of malignancies such as Kaposi sarcoma (KS) and viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2. However, several other factors including level of immunosuppression and chemotherapy may also affect the immune response against SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we investigated factors affecting SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity towards the spike, nucleoprotein, membrane protein, and other open reading frame proteins in individuals with HIV-associated KS. The KS patients were SARS-CoV-2 seropositive with detectable T cell responses, but had no history of symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. We observed that the T cell responses increase from baseline levels during follow-up, with responses towards the NMO peptide pool being statistically significant. Low CD4 counts below 200 cells/ μ l were associated with lower SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses. Cancer chemotherapy and KS T staging did not have a significant effect on the T cell responses.
【초록키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, viral infection, Coronavirus disease 2019, coronavirus, immune response, Immunity, T cells, SARS-COV-2 infection, Cancer, Infection, peptide, Immunosuppression, risk, virus, CD4, viral infections, Population, Chemotherapy, Severe acute respiratory syndrome, Protein, T cell, Viral, membrane protein, response, T cell responses, Patient, death, Follow-up, nucleoprotein, respiratory, seropositive, T cell response, Cell-mediated immunity, HIV infection, Open reading frame, severe disease, malignancy, leads, acute respiratory syndrome, Factor, Frame, Kaposi sarcoma, higher risk, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, significant effect, individual, Depletion, malignancies, baseline levels, symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, Affect, caused, reported, investigated, detectable, increase, had no, statistically significant, affecting, impair, baseline level, with HIV, CD4 count, peptide pool, 【제목키워드】 Sarcoma,