November 2, 2020

T-cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 in non-hospitalised individuals

Recent studies looking at the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 have raised concerns that immune responses following natural infection may not be sustained and therefore allow recurrent infection. But what about the T cell response?

From the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (UK-CIC) and Public Health England, this preprint is the first assessment of the size of the SARS-CoV-2 cellular immune response at six months following primary infection in 100 healthy adults with asymptomatic or mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

Journalists dialled in to this briefing to hear the authors describe their findings and answer their questions.

Note that this data is a preprint, so it is early work that has not yet been through peer-review and is not published in a journal.

Speakers included:

Prof Paul Moss, UK-CIC lead and Professor of Haematology at the University of Birmingham and Director of Research and Knowledge Transfer in the College of Medicine

Dr Shamez Ladhani, Paediatric Infectious Disease Consultant, St. George’s Hospital London and Consultant Epidemiologist, Public Health England

This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of Comments.