Affiliations
- Virus and Immunity Unit, Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, CNRS UMR3569, Paris, France.
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Hôtel Dieu Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Université de Paris Cité, Paris, France.
- Infectious Disease Analytics and Epidemiology G5 Unit, Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris Cité, Paris, France.
- INSERM U1018, Center for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health (CESP), Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France.
PMID: 37559726 PMCID: PMC10408302 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1221961
Abstract
Background: The role of adaptive immune responses in long COVID is not well understood, with hypotheses suggesting either insufficient antiviral responses or excessive immune reactions causing damage. This study characterized humoral and CD4+ T cell responses in long COVID patients before vaccination.
Methods: Long COVID patients who were seropositive (LC+, n=28) or seronegative (LC-, n=23) by spike ELISA assay were recruited and compared to COVID patients with resolved symptoms (RE, n=29) and uninfected controls (HD, n=29).
Results: Long COVID patients presented similar symptoms regardless of serostatus. However, ELISA-seronegative patients had lower SARS-CoV-2 specific humoral and cellular responses.
Conclusions: The findings suggest two types of immune responses in long COVID: seropositive patients displayed robust responses, while seronegative patients showed weak responses, potentially indicating multiple etiologies.
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2; T cell; common cold coronavirus; humoral immune response; long COVID; seronegative and seropositive.
