Course of SARS coronavirus-2-specific antibody titers and magnitude of the memory B-cell and T-cell response

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christian Jassoy
• Subject Area: Virology ; Immunology
• Term: from 2021 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 458313848

Most or all SARS CoV-2-infected individuals develop an immune response to the virus. The goal of the study is to examine the course of the antibody titers and the magnitude of the virus-specific memory B-cell and T-cell responses in individuals with mild to moderate SARS CoV-2 infection.Fifty to sixty adult study participants with SARS CoV-2 infection will be followed up for 12 months. Four to ten weeks, 6, 9 and 12 months after infection serum samples will be obtained. In addition, at 9 and/or 12 months, heparinized blood specimens will be obtained to prepare mononuclear cells. Sera will be used to examine the antibody responses against the SARS CoV-2 nucleoprotein and the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the S glycoprotein, influenza virus nucleoprotein and tetanus toxoid as well as the neutralizing antibody response. Cells will be used to measure the magnitude of the SARS CoV-2 nucleoprotein and RBD, influenza virus nucleoprotein-, cytomegalovirus-, and tetanus toxoid-specific memory B- and T-cell response. The T-cell response against the RBD will be observed in greater detail with single overlapping peptides.The study measures the course of the SARS CoV-2-specific antibody response in the first six months and later than six months of infection and the magnitude of the virus-specific memory B- and T-cell response at 9-12 months after infection. The immune responses will be put into perspective to each other and to immune responses against influenza virus, cytomegalovirus and tetanus antigens. A special focus of the study is the association of the neutralizing antibody response with antibody, memory B- and T-cell responses against the receptor binding domain of the viral glycoprotein.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants