Abstract
We investigated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–specific antibodies and T-cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 and human coronavirus (HCoV) 229E and OC43 in 11 SARS-CoV-2 serodiscordant couples in Strasbourg, France, in which 1 partner had evidence of mild coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and in 10 unexposed healthy controls. Patients with confirmed COVID-19 were considered index patients and their partners close contacts. All index patients displayed positive SARS-CoV-2–specific antibody and T-cell responses that lasted up to 102 days after symptom onset. All contacts remained seronegative for SARS-CoV-2; however, 6 reported COVID-19 symptoms within a median of 7 days after their partners, and 4 of those showed a positive SARS-CoV-2–specific T-cell response against 3 or 4 SARS-CoV-2 antigens that lasted up to 93 days after symptom onset. The 11 couples and controls displayed positive T-cell responses against HCoV-229E or HCoV-OC43. These data suggest that exposure to SARS-CoV-2 can induce virus-specific T-cell responses without seroconversion.
Highlights
We investigated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–specific antibodies and T-cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 and human coronavirus (HCoV) 229E and OC43 in 11 SARS-CoV-2 serodiscordant couples in Strasbourg, France, in which 1 partner had evidence of mild coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and in 10 unexposed healthy controls
We explored the T-cell response against 2 human coronaviruses (HCoV) that cause common colds, given the potential cross-reactive immunity between SARS-CoV-2 and common cold HCoVs
Ten healthy blood donors who had not been exposed to COVID-19 patients and who had tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were enrolled as controls
Summary
We investigated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–specific antibodies and T-cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 and human coronavirus (HCoV) 229E and OC43 in 11 SARS-CoV-2 serodiscordant couples in Strasbourg, France, in which 1 partner had evidence of mild coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and in 10 unexposed healthy controls. All index patients displayed positive SARS-CoV-2–specific antibody and T-cell responses that lasted up to 102 days after symptom onset. The absence of antiviral antibodies after exposure has been previously reported for other viral infections In these cases, the presence of virus-specific T-cell responses provided proof of viral transmission [5]. We investigated humoral and cellular responses to SARS-CoV-2 in 11 serodiscordant couples in whom 1 partner had evidence of mild COVID-19 and in 10 unexposed healthy blood donors (controls). We explored the T-cell response against 2 human coronaviruses (HCoV) that cause common colds, given the potential cross-reactive immunity between SARS-CoV-2 and common cold HCoVs
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