SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has been declared by World Health Organization as a worldwide pandemic. However, there are many unknowns about the antigen-specific T-cell-mediated immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here, we present both single-cell TCR-seq and RNA-seq to analyze the dynamics of TCR repertoire and immune metabolic functions of blood T cells collected from recently discharged COVID-19 patients. We found that while the diversity of TCR repertoire was increased in discharged patients, it returned to basal level ~1 week after becoming virus-free. The dynamics of T cell repertoire correlated with a profound shift of gene signatures from antiviral response to metabolism adaptation. We also demonstrated that the top expanded T cell clones (~10% of total T cells) display the key anti-viral features in CD8 + T cells, confirming a critical role of antigen-specific T cells in fighting against SARS-CoV-2. Our work provides a basis for further analysis of adaptive immunity in COVID-19 patients, and also has implications in developing a T-cell-based vaccine for SARS-CoV-2.
【저자키워드】 immunology, Cell Biology, 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Vaccine, immune response, adaptive, Immunity, T cells, SARS-COV-2 infection, discharged patients, CD8, metabolism, immune, Anti-viral, RNA-Seq, T cell, outbreak, TCR, Critical, single-cell, COVID-19 patients, Blood, antiviral response, Analysis, antigen-specific T cell, World Health Organization, metabolic function, worldwide pandemic, clone, gene signature, implication, feature, collected, provide, demonstrated, correlated, discharged, returned, was increased, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19, Dynamics, T cell, TCR, convalescent individual,