Oligosymptomatic long-term carriers of SARS-CoV-2 display impaired innate resistance but increased high-affinity anti-spike antibodies

Abstract

The vast spectrum of clinical features of COVID-19 keeps challenging scientists and clinicians. Low resistance to infection might result in long-term viral persistence, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we studied the immuneresponse of immunocompetent COVID-19 patients with prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection by immunophenotyping, cytokine and serological analysis. Despite viral loads and symptoms comparable to regular mildly symptomatic patients, long-term carriers displayed weaker systemic IFN-I responses and fewer circulating pDCs and NK cells at disease onset. Type 1 cytokines remained low, while type-3 cytokines were in turn enhanced. Of interest, we observed no defects in antigen-specific cytotoxic Tcell responses, and circulating antibodies displayed higher affinity against different variants of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein in these patients. The identification of distinct immune responses in long-term carriers adds up to our understanding of essential host protective mechanisms to ensure tissue damage control despite prolonged viral infection.