T-cell responses in COVID-19 survivors six to eight months after
infection: a longitudinal cohort study in Pune
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 immune response is crucial for disease management,
although diminishing immunity raises the possibility of reinfection. In
matched samples collected at one month and six to eight months after
infection, we examined the immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 in a
group of convalescent critically ill COVID-19 patients. The PBMCs were
isolated from enrolled study participants and flow cytometry analysis
was done to assess the lymphocyte subsets of naive, effector, central
memory, and effector memory CD4+ or CD8+ T cells in COVID-19 patients at
one month and six to eight months after infection. Immunophenotypic
characterization of immune cell subsets was performed on individuals who
were followed longitudinally for one month (n=44) and up to 6-8 months
(n=25) after recovery from COVID infection. We observed that CD4+ T
cells in hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 patients tended to decrease, whereas
CD8+ T cells steadily recovered after one month, while there was a
sustained increase in the population of effector T cells and effector
memory T cells. Furthermore, COVID-19 patients showed persistently low B
cells and a small increase in the NK cell population. In conclusion, our
findings show that T cell responses were maintained at 6-8 months after
infection. This opens new pathways for further research into the
long-term effects in COVID-19 immunopathogenesis.