Emerging Microbes and Infections (Dec 2023)

Characterizing the cellular and molecular variabilities of peripheral immune cells in healthy recipients of BBIBP-CorV inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine by single-cell RNA sequencing

  • Renyang Tong,
  • Lingjie Luo,
  • Yichao Zhao,
  • Mingze Sun,
  • Ronghong Li,
  • Jianmei Zhong,
  • Yifan Chen,
  • Liuhua Hu,
  • Zheng Li,
  • Jianfeng Shi,
  • Yuyan Lyu,
  • Li Hu,
  • Xiao Guo,
  • Qi Liu,
  • Tian Shuang,
  • Chenjie Zhang,
  • Ancai Yuan,
  • Lingyue Sun,
  • Zheng Zhang,
  • Kun Qian,
  • Lei Chen,
  • Wei Lin,
  • Alex F. Chen,
  • Feng Wang,
  • Jun Pu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/22221751.2023.2187245
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1

Abstract

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ABSTRACTOver 3 billion doses of inactivated vaccines for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been administered globally. However, our understanding of the immune cell functional transcription and T cell receptor (TCR)/B cell receptor (BCR) repertoire dynamics following inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination remains poorly understood. Here, we performed single-cell RNA and TCR/BCR sequencing on peripheral blood mononuclear cells at four time points after immunization with the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine BBIBP-CorV. Our analysis revealed an enrichment of monocytes, central memory CD4+ T cells, type 2 helper T cells and memory B cells following vaccination. Single-cell TCR-seq and RNA-seq comminating analysis identified a clonal expansion of CD4+ T cells (but not CD8+ T cells) following a booster vaccination that corresponded to a decrease in the TCR diversity of central memory CD4+ T cells and type 2 helper T cells. Importantly, these TCR repertoire changes and CD4+ T cell differentiation were correlated with the biased VJ gene usage of BCR and the antibody-producing function of B cells post-vaccination. Finally, we compared the functional transcription and repertoire dynamics in immune cells elicited by vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection to explore the immune responses under different stimuli. Our data provide novel molecular and cellular evidence for the CD4+ T cell-dependent antibody response induced by inactivated vaccine BBIBP-CorV. This information is urgently needed to develop new prevention and control strategies for SARS-CoV-2 infection. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04871932).

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