Cell Reports (Jan 2024)

Long-lasting humoral and cellular memory immunity to vaccinia virus Tiantan provides pre-existing immunity against mpox virus in Chinese population

  • Min Li,
  • Yaxin Guo,
  • Yao Deng,
  • Wenhui Gao,
  • Baoying Huang,
  • Weiyong Yao,
  • Yingze Zhao,
  • Qing Zhang,
  • Mengkun Huang,
  • Maoshun Liu,
  • Lei Li,
  • Peipei Guo,
  • Jinmin Tian,
  • Xin Wang,
  • Ying Lin,
  • Jinxian Gan,
  • Yuanyuan Guo,
  • Yuechao Hu,
  • Jianing Zhang,
  • Xiaonan Yang,
  • Bingli Shang,
  • Mengjie Yang,
  • Yang Han,
  • Yalan Wang,
  • Peilei Cong,
  • Mengzhe Li,
  • Qiaohong Chu,
  • Danni Zhang,
  • Qihui Wang,
  • Tong Zhang,
  • Guizhen Wu,
  • Wenjie Tan,
  • George F. Gao,
  • Jun Liu

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 43, no. 1
p. 113609

Abstract

Read online

Summary: Investigating immune memory to vaccinia virus and pre-existing immunity to mpox virus (MPXV) among the population is crucial for the global response to this ongoing mpox epidemic. Blood was sampled from vaccinees inoculated with vaccinia virus Tiantan (VTT) strain born before 1981 and unvaccinated control subjects born since 1982. After at least 40 years of the inoculation, 60% or 5% VTT vaccinees possess neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) to VTT or MPXV, with at least 50% having T cell memory to VTT protein antigens. Notably, 46.7% vaccinees show pre-existing T cell responses to MPXV. Broad pre-existing CD8+ T cell reactivities to MPXV are detected not only against conserved epitopes but also against variant epitopes between VTT and MPXV. Persistent NAbs and T cell memory to VTT among vaccinees, along with pre-existing T cells to MPXV among both vaccinees and the unvaccinated population, indicate a particular immune barrier to mpox.

Keywords