Cytotoxic T lymphocytes targeting a conserved SARS-CoV-2 spike epitope are efficient serial killers.

Understanding immune response to infections and vaccines lags understanding humoral responses. While neutralizing antibody responses wane over time, T cells are instrumental in long-term immunity. We apply machine learning and time-lapse imaging microscopy in nanowell grids (TIMING) to study thousands of videos of T cells with specificity for SARS-CoV-2 eliminating targets bearing spike protein as a surrogate for viral infection.

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes targeting a conserved SARS-CoV-2 spike epitope are efficient serial killers.

Unlabelled: Understanding the cellular immune response to infections, cancers and vaccines lags behind the investigation of humoral responses. While neutralizing antibody responses wane over time, the ability of T cells to recognize viruses including SARS-CoV-2 is instrumental to providing long-term immunity. Although T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire screening can provide insights into the skewing of a T-cell response elicited upon vaccination or infection, they unfortunately provide no assessment into the functional capacity of T cells or their ability to eliminate virally infected targets.