In a new study, researchers found that even the sickest COVID-19 patients produce T cells that help fight the virus.
The finding offers further evidence that a COVID-19 vaccine will need to elicit T cells to work alongside antibodies.
The research also showed that both Dutch and American patients have similar responses to the virus.
The research was conducted by a team at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC).
For the study, the researchers followed ten COVID-19 patients with the most severe disease symptoms.
All ten were admitted to the ICU at Erasmus University Medical Center, in the Netherlands, and put on ventilators as part of their care. Two of the patients eventually died of the disease.
An in-depth look at their immune system responses showed that all ten patients produced T cells that targeted the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These T cells worked alongside antibodies to try to clear the virus and stop the infection.
These findings are in line with a recent finding that showed a robust T cell response in people with moderate cases of COVID-19.
In both studies, the T cells in these patients prominently targeted the “spike” protein on SARS-CoV-2.
The virus uses the spike protein to enter host cells, and many vaccine efforts around the world are aimed at getting the immune system to recognize and attack this protein.
The new study offers further evidence that the spike protein is a promising target and confirms that the immune system can also mount strong responses to other targets on the virus.
This is good news for those making a vaccine using spike, and it also suggests new ways to potentially increase vaccine potency.
One author of the study is LJI Professor Alessandro Sette, Dr. Biol. Sci.
The study is published in Science Immunology.
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