Welcome to Oxford Immunotec’s knowledge hub, where you will find insightful and up to date resources for you, the healthcare professional, connecting the dots between TB and COVID-19 and highlighting the importance of TB testing in a COVID-19 environment.
Recommended Resources
The importance of T cells in SARS-CoV-2 infection: Research papers
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M Prendecki, C Clarke, et al. Effect of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection on humoral and T-cell responses to single-dose BNT162b2 vaccine
Study examines BNT162b2 post-vaccination T cell responses using Oxford Immunotec’s T-SPOT Discovery SARS-CoV-2 kit
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A Tarke, J Sidney, et al. Negligible impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on CD4+ and CD8+ T cell reactivity in COVID-19 exposed donors and vaccinees
Study shows that that T cell responses in convalescent COVID-19 subjects or mRNA vaccine recipients are not substantially affected by mutations
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A D Redd, A Nardin, et al. CD8+ T cell responses in COVID-19 convalescent individuals target conserved epitopes from multiple prominent SARS-CoV-2 circulating variants.
This study suggests that individuals who have recovered from, or been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 should maintain effective CD8+ T cells responses against the major variants of the virus that have recently emerged.
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Tan AT, Linster M, Tan CW, et al. Early induction of functional SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells associates with rapid viral clearance and mild disease in COVID-19 patients. Cell Reports. Published online January 2021:108728.
COVID-19 disease duration and severity was associated with the late emergence of SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells, leading the authors to conclude that T cell are essential to controlling COVID-19 disease, and T cell diagnostics could help to predict the course of disease.
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Liu Y, Tan W, Chen H, et al. Dynamic changes in lymphocyte subsets and parallel cytokine levels in patients with severe and critical COVID-19. BMC Infect Dis. 2021;21(1):79.
Sustained low CD4+ T cell levels are associated with poor COVID-19 prognosis, whilst and increase of T cells during recovery is linked to improved prognosis.
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Paola de Candia, Francesco Prattichizzo, et al. T cells: warriors of SARS-CoV-2 infection
This article considers whether T cells might explain whether an individual develops mild or severe COVID-19 disease, due to the fact that people at higher risk of developing severe disease have been observed to have a greater reduction in T cell numbers during SARS-CoV-2 infection (opinion piece).
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Le Bert N, Tan AT, Kunasegaran K et al. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity in cases of COVID-19 and SARS, and uninfected controls. Nature. 2020; 584; 457-462
Patients who recovered from SARS-CoV-2 17 years ago still have specific T cells against the virus today, suggesting that T cell responses to human coronaviruses may be robust and long-lasting.
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Jennifer M. Dan, Jose Mateus, et al. Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 infection assessed for up to 8 months after infection
Memory T and B cells could be detected in the majority of COVID-19 patients with little or no decay up to 8 months after infection, suggesting that many people will develop strong and long-lasting immune responses to SARS-CoV-2.
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Julie Demaret, Guillaume Lefèvre, et al. Severe SARS-CoV-2 patients develop a higher specific T-cell response
Patients who suffer from severe COVID-19 develop stronger T cell responses than those who suffer from mild disease. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses can be detected using ELISpot IGRAs.
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Wyllie D, Mulchandani R, Jones HE, et al. SARS-CoV-2 responsive T cell numbers are associated with protection from COVID-19: A prospective cohort study. medRxiv. 2020. doi: 10.11012020.11.02.20222778
SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in infected can be detected using the T-SPOT Discovery SARS-CoV-2 RUO kit, and these T cell responses appear to be associated with protection from COVID-19.
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Grifoni A, Weiskopf D, Ramirez SI et al., Targets of T Cell Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus in Humans with COVID-19 Disease and Unexposed Individuals, Cell (2020)
100% of patients who have been exposed to the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus had T cells specific to the virus circulating in their peripheral blood. SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells were also detected in 40-60% of unexposed individuals – suggesting that some people may have pre-existing cross-reactive immune responses to the virus.
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Sekine T, Perez-Potti A, Rivera-Ballesteros O et al. Robust T cell immunity in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19. Cell. 2020; 183(1): 158-168
SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells were detectable in antibody negative individuals who had suffered from mild or asymptomatic COVID-19. This suggests that T cells may be a more sensitive indicator of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 than antibodies.
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Zuo J, Dowell A, Pearce H, et al. Robust SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell immunity is maintained at 6 months following primary infection. bioRxiv. 2020. doi: 10.1101/2020.11.01.362319
Individuals who have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus still have detectable T cell responses 6 months after initial infection.
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Dan JM, Mateus J, Kato, Y, et al. Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for greater than six months after infection. bioRxiv. 2020. doi: 10.1101/2020.11.15.383323v1
Individuals who have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus still have detectable T cell responses 6 months after initial infection.
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Li Z, Liu J, Deng H, et al. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell memory is long-lasting in the majority of convalescent COVID-19 individuals. bioRxiv. 2020. doi: 10.1101/2020.11.15.383463
SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses many still be present up to 9 months post-infection.
Websites
- T-SPOT® COVID test
- RSM COVID-19 Learning Hub
- T-SPOT® Discovery SARS-CoV-2 kit
- TB PPM Learning Network
- COVID-19 testing with ODL®
- The Union – COVID-19
- The WHO – COVID-19
- European Respiratory Society – COVID-19 resource centre
- TB Europe Coalition
- European Lung Foundation
- Stop TB Partnership
- TB Alliance
- TB Alert
Podcasts and webinars
- Podcast: Prof. Tao Dong and Prof. Antonio Bertoletti - Research during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Podcast: Prof. Danny Altmann - What is the role of T cells in the response to SARS-CoV-2? December, 2020
- Podcast: Dr Ravina Kullar and Prof. Helen Fletcher - The role of T cells in the development of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. December, 2020
- Webinar: T-SPOT Discovery SARS-CoV-2 - Importance of T cell testing in SARS-CoV-2
- Webinar: The role of cell-mediated immunity in immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection
- Webinar: The twin epidemics of TB and COVID-19: challenges and controversies
Articles and Papers
- Antibodies For Covid-19 Found In Breast Milk After Vaccine
- T-Cell Responses Hold Up Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants, Study Finds
- Strong T-cell response is good news for battle against Covid variants
- Data on long Covid in UK children is cause for concern, scientists say
- How ‘killer’ T cells could boost COVID immunity in face of new variants
- WHO announces updated definitions of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis
- Low-Income Countries Can Expect Higher Mortality From ‘Collateral Damage’ Than COVID-19, Global Fund Head Predicts
- How effective is a single vaccine dose against Covid-19?
- The known unknowns of T cell immunity to COVID-19
- Tuberculosis and malaria in the age of COVID-19
- BBC Radio 4 interview: Long COVID
- There’s a social pathogen stalking the world that’s as deadly as Covid-19
- New T cell test is eight times better at detecting whether a patient had COVID than antibody tests, study claims
- Robust SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell immunity is maintained at 6 months following primary infection
- Preliminary observations on IGRA testing for TB infection in patients with severe COVID-19 eligible for immunosuppressive therapy
- Declining prevalence of antibody positivity to SARS-CoV-2: a community study of 365,000 adults
- T cell testing in SARS-CoV-2 with the T-SPOT Discovery SARS-CoV-2 kit
- Baseline T cell immune phenotypes predict virologic and disease control upon SARS-CoV infection
- Good News on T-Cell Response Against SARS-CoV-2 Infection
- Covid set to cause 400,000 surge in TB deaths as medics diverted
- Antigen-Specific Adaptive Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in Acute COVID-19 and Associations with Age and Disease Severity
- SARS-CoV-2-derived peptides define heterologous and COVID-19-induced T cell recognition
- COVID-19 FAQs - Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories®
- Worldwide Effects of Coronavirus Disease Pandemic on Tuberculosis Services, January – April 2020
- COVID-19 could activate latent tuberculosis
- How COVID-19 could benefit tuberculosis and HIV services in South Africa
- How TB and COVID-19 compare: an opportunity to integrate both control programmes
- COVID-19 casts a shadow over progress on TB
- ‘The Biggest Monster’ Is Spreading. And It’s Not the Coronavirus.
- COVID-19 and lung health FAQs – The Union
- COVID-19: Considerations for tuberculosis (TB) care
- COVID-19 affects HIV and tuberculosis care in South Africa
- Tackling two pandemics: a plea on World Tuberculosis Day
- The potential impact of the COVID-19 response on tuberculosis in high-burden countries: a modelling analysis
- Report 19: The Potential Impact of the COVID-19 Epidemic on HIV, TB and Malaria in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
- We must never forget TB is still out there
- The potential impact of COVID-19 related disruption on tuberculosis burden
- Predicted impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global tuberculosis deaths in 2020
- Did you know that there has been an 80% drop in TB diagnostic testing due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
- Dr Jane Greatorex at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, shares what we have learnt about COVID-19 treatments so far
- The Need To Avoid COVID-19 Stigma: Lessons From TB Response
- COVID-19: Avoiding a ‘second tragedy’ for those with TB