Author: Swanson, Phillip A. II ; Padilla, Marcelino ; Hoyland, Wesley ; McGlinchey, Kelly ; Fields, Paul A. ; Bibi, Sagida ; Faust, Saul N. ; McDermott, Adrian B. ; Lambe, Teresa ; Pollard, Andrew J. ; Durham, Nicholas M. ; Kelly, Elizabeth J. ; Adlou, Syed ; Aley, Parvinder K. ; Angus, Brian ; Anslow, Rachel ; Baker, Philip ; Bansal, Himanshu ; Beveridge, Amy ; Bridges-Webb, Alice ; Ching, Steven ; Cicconi, Paola ; Clutterbuck, Elizabeth A. ; Collins, Andrea M. ; Darton, Thomas C. ; Demissie, Tesfaye ; Dinesh, Tanya ; Douglas, Alexander D. ; Duncan, Christopher J. A. ; Ewer, Katie J. ; Felle, Sally ; Finn, Adam ; Folegatti, Pedro M. ; Fuskova, Michelle ; Gilbert, Sarah C. ; Goodman, Anna ; Green, Christopher A. ; Harbolick, Elizabeth ; Hart, Thomas C. ; Hayes, Susana ; Hill, Adrian V. S. ; Jenkin, Daniel ; Jepson, Brett M. ; Kasanyinga, Mwila ; Kerridge, Simon ; Libri, Vincenzo ; Lillie, Patrick J. ; McGregor, Alastair C. ; Minassian, Angela M. ; Mujadidi, Yama F. ; Pilataxi, Fernanda ; Plested, Emma ; Provstgaard-Morys, Samuel ; Ramasamy, Maheshi ; Robinson, Hannah ; Sanders, Katherine ; Smith, Andrew ; Snape, Matthew D. ; Song, Rinn ; Sutherland, Rebecca K. ; Thomson, Emma C. ; Toshner, Mark ; Turner, David P. J. ; Voysey, Merryn ; Williams, Christopher J.
AZD1222 (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), a replication-deficient simian adenovirus-vectored vaccine, has demonstrated safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in clinical trials and real-world studies. We characterized CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses induced by AZD1222 vaccination in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 280 unique vaccine recipients aged 18-85 years who enrolled in the phase 2/3 COV002 trial. Total spike-specific CD4+ T cell helper type 1 (Th1) and CD8+ T-cell responses were significantly increased in AZD1222-vaccinated adults of all ages following two doses of AZD1222. CD4+ Th2 responses following AZD1222 vaccination were not detected. Furthermore, AZD1222-specific Th1 and CD8+ T cells both displayed a high degree of polyfunctionality in all adult age groups. T-cell receptor (TCR) β sequences from vaccinated participants mapped against TCR sequences known to react to SARS-CoV-2 revealed substantial breadth and depth across the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein for the AZD1222-induced CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses. Overall, AZD1222 vaccination induced a robust, polyfunctional Th1-dominated T-cell response, with broad CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell coverage across the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
One Sentence Summary:Polyfunctional CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses are elicited against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein following vaccination with AZD1222.