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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Individuals who have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus still have detectable T cell responses 6 months after initial infection.

Individuals who have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus still have detectable T cell responses 6 months after initial infection.

SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses many still be present up to 9 months post-infection.