TY - JOUR
T1 - Cutting edge
T2 - Distinct B cell repertoires characterize patients with mild and severe COVID-19
AU - Hoehn, Kenneth B.
AU - Ramanathan, Palaniappan
AU - Unterman, Avraham
AU - Sumida, Tomokazu S.
AU - Asashima, Hiromitsu
AU - Hafler, David A.
AU - Kaminski, Naftali
AU - Dela Cruz, Charles S.
AU - Sealfon, Stuart C.
AU - Bukreyev, Alexander
AU - Kleinstein, Steven H.
N1 - Funding Information:
K.B.H. receives consulting fees from Prellis Biologics. S.H.K. receives consulting fees from Northrop Grumman. N.K. served as a consultant to Boehringer Ingelheim, Third Rock, Pliant, Samumed, NuMedii, Theravance, LifeMax, Three Lake Partners, Optikira, Astra Zeneca, and Augmanity over the last 3 y and reports Equity in Pliant and a grant from Veracyte and Boehringer Ingel-heim and nonfinancial support from MiRagen and Astra Zeneca. N.K. has intellectual property on novel biomarkers and therapeutics in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis licensed to Biotech, all of which are outside the scope of this paper. The other authors have no financial conflicts of interest.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant R01 AI104739. S.C.S., A.B., and S.H.K. were supported by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Contract N6600119C4022. N.K. is funded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH Grants R01HL127349, R01HL141852, U01HL145567, and UH2HL123886.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc. 0022-1767/21/$37.50
PY - 2021/6/15
Y1 - 2021/6/15
N2 - Protective immunity against COVID-19 likely depends on the production of SARS-CoV-2-specific plasma cells and memory B cells postinfection or postvaccination. Previous work has found that germinal center reactions are disrupted in severe COVID-19. This may adversely affect long-term immunity against reinfection. Consistent with an extrafollicular B cell response, patients with severe COVID-19 have elevated frequencies of clonally expanded, class-switched, unmutated plasmablasts. However, it is unclear whether B cell populations in individuals with mild COVID-19 are similarly skewed. In this study, we use single-cell RNA sequencing of B cells to show that in contrast to patients with severe COVID-19, subjects with mildly symptomatic COVID-19 have B cell repertoires enriched for clonally diverse, somatically hypermutated memory B cells ~30 d after the onset of symptoms. This provides evidence that B cell responses are less disrupted in mild COVID-19 and result in the production of memory B cells.
AB - Protective immunity against COVID-19 likely depends on the production of SARS-CoV-2-specific plasma cells and memory B cells postinfection or postvaccination. Previous work has found that germinal center reactions are disrupted in severe COVID-19. This may adversely affect long-term immunity against reinfection. Consistent with an extrafollicular B cell response, patients with severe COVID-19 have elevated frequencies of clonally expanded, class-switched, unmutated plasmablasts. However, it is unclear whether B cell populations in individuals with mild COVID-19 are similarly skewed. In this study, we use single-cell RNA sequencing of B cells to show that in contrast to patients with severe COVID-19, subjects with mildly symptomatic COVID-19 have B cell repertoires enriched for clonally diverse, somatically hypermutated memory B cells ~30 d after the onset of symptoms. This provides evidence that B cell responses are less disrupted in mild COVID-19 and result in the production of memory B cells.
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U2 - 10.4049/jimmunol.2100135
DO - 10.4049/jimmunol.2100135
M3 - Article
C2 - 34049971
AN - SCOPUS:85108659181
SN - 0022-1767
VL - 206
SP - 2785
EP - 2790
JO - Journal of Immunology
JF - Journal of Immunology
IS - 12
ER -