Difference in sensitivity between SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell assays in patients with underlying conditions

摘要

To the Editor: In the paper "Rapid measurement of SARS-CoV-2 spike T cells in whole blood from vaccinated and naturally infected individuals," Tan et al. stress the importance of measuring multiple immunological correlates in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccination (1). To avoid complex "traditional" T cell assays like interferon γ (IFN-γ) enzyme-linked immune absorbent spot (ELISpot) or activation-induced marker (AIM) flow cytome-try, Tan et al. assessed the performance of a T cell test specific for SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein based on stimulation of whole blood with overlapping peptides and subsequent detection of cytokines in plasma. In vaccinated and convalescent individuals, they found that the sensitivity of the whole-blood assay is comparable to that of traditional T cell assays, concluding that this is an attractive measure of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity.