Proportion of Ugandans with pre-pandemic Sars-CoV-2 cross-reactive CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses

A pilot study

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19590799
AutoresAnnemarie Namuniina (Uganda Virus Research Institute, autor correspondente), Enoch S Muyanja (Emory University, autor correspondente), Victoria Menya Biribawa (0009-0000-2115-2693, Uganda Virus Research Institute, autor correspondente), Brenda Okech (0000-0002-1722-5156, Uganda Virus Research Institute, autor correspondente), Aloysious Ssemaganda (0000-0003-4705-7912, University of Manitoba, autor correspondente), Matt A Price (0000-0002-2918-1373, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, autor correspondente), Nancy Hills, Nancy K Hills (0000-0002-1041-8182, University of California, San Francisco, autor correspondente), Ann Nanteza (0000-0003-3244-0206, Makerere University, autor correspondente), Bernard S Bagaya (0000-0002-3847-2615, Makerere University, autor correspondente), Daniela Weiskopf (0000-0003-2968-7371, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, autor correspondente), Catherine Riou (0000-0001-9679-0745, University of Cape Town, autor correspondente), Steven J Reynolds (0000-0002-5403-2759, National Institute on Drug Abuse, autor correspondente), Ronald Galiwango (0000-0003-3702-5722, Rakai Health Sciences Program, autor correspondente), Ronald M Galiwango, Andrew D Redd (0000-0003-4651-1423, National Institute on Drug Abuse, autor correspondente)
EditoresMadhukar Pai (0000-0003-3667-4536)
Ano2023
Volume3
Fascículo8
Páginase0001566
Data de publicação2023-08-16
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPLOS Global Public Health (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2767-3375 • E-ISSN: 2767-3375
EditoraPublic Library of Science (PLoS) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1371/journal.pgph.0001566
PMID37585383
OpenAlexW4385863969
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas22

The estimated mortality rate of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic varied greatly around the world. In particular, multiple countries in East, Central, and West Africa had significantly lower rates of COVID-19 related fatalities than many resource-rich nations with significantly earlier wide-spread access to life-saving vaccines. One possible reason for this lower mortality could be the presence of pre-existing cross-reactive immunological responses in these areas of the world. To explore this hypothesis, an exploratory study of stored peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from Ugandans collected from 2015–2017 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 29) and from hospitalized Ugandan COVID-19 patients (n = 3) were examined using flow-cytometry for the presence of pre-existing SARS-CoV-2 cross-reactive CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell populations using four T-cell epitope mega pools. Of pre-pandemic participants, 89.7% (26/29) had either CD4+ or CD8+, or both, SARS-CoV-2 specific T-cell responses. Specifically, CD4+ T-cell reactivity (72.4%) and CD8+ T-cell reactivity (65.5%) were relatively similar, and 13 participants (44.8%) had both types of cross-reactive types of T-cells present. There were no significant differences in response by sex in the population, however this may be in part due to the limited sample size examined. The rates of cross-reactive T-cell populations in this exploratory Ugandan population appears higher than previous estimates from resource-rich countries like the United States (20–50% reactivity). It is unclear what role, if any, this cross-reactivity played in decreasing COVID-19 related mortality in Uganda and other African countries, but does suggest that a better understanding of global pre-existing immunological cross-reactivity could be an informative data of epidemiological intelligence moving forward

Antigen · Biology · CD8 · Environmental health · Immune system · In vitro · Pandemic · Peripheral blood mononuclear cell · Population · Sociology · T cell · COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Demography · Medicine · SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research · Genetics · Immunology · Internal Medicine · Virology