1. Prevalence of COVID-19-associated symptoms during acute infection in relation to SARS-CoV-2-directed humoral and cellular immune responses in a mild-diseased convalescent cohort.
- Author
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Tegeler, Christian M., Bilich, Tatjana, Maringer, Yacine, Salih, Helmut R., Walz, Juliane S., Nelde, Annika, and Heitmann, Jonas S.
- Subjects
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HUMORAL immunity , *SMELL disorders , *TASTE disorders , *T cells , *POLYMERASE chain reaction , *SYMPTOMS - Abstract
• Association of different COVID-19 symptoms with SARS-CoV-2-directed immune responses. • Antibody levels are increased with severe fever, headache, and loss of smell and taste. • Decreased T cell responses are associated with severe cough or loss of smell and taste. Besides SARS-CoV-2-directed humoral immune responses, T cell responses are indispensable for effective antiviral immunity. Recent data have shown a correlation between COVID-19 symptoms and humoral immune response, but so far, little is known about the association of SARS-CoV-2-directed T cell responses and disease severity. Herein, we evaluated the prevalence of different clinical COVID-19 symptoms in relation to SARS-CoV-2-directed humoral and cellular immune responses. The severity of eight different symptoms during acute infection were assessed using questionnaires from 193 convalescent individuals and were evaluated in relation to SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels and intensity of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses 2–8 weeks after positive polymerase chain reaction. Although increased IgG serum levels could be associated with severity of most symptoms, no difference in T cell response intensity between different symptom severities was observed for the majority of COVID-19 symptoms. However, when analyzing loss of smell or taste and cough, awareness of more severe symptoms was associated with reduced T cell response intensities. These data suggest that rapid virus clearance mediated by SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells prevents severe symptoms of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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