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Persistent memory CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cell responses in recovered severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients to SARS coronavirus M antigen

¹ Department of Immunology, Zhongshan Medical School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510089, China
² Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China
³ Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China
⁴ Vaccine Research Center, NIAID/NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA

Correspondence
Changyou Wu
changyou_wu{at}yahoo.com

The membrane (M) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a major glycoprotein with multiple biological functions. In this study, we found that memory T cells against M protein were persistent in recovered SARS patients by detecting gamma interferon (IFN-) production using ELISA and ELISpot assays. Flow cytometric analysis showed that both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells were involved in cellular responses to SARS-CoV M antigen. Furthermore, memory CD8⁺ T cells displayed an effector memory cell phenotype expressing CD45RO^– CCR7^– CD62L^–. In contrast, the majority of IFN-⁺ CD4⁺ T cells were central memory cells with the expression of CD45RO⁺ CCR7⁺ CD62L^–. The epitope screening from 30 synthetic overlapping peptides that cover the entire SARS-CoV M protein identified four human T-cell immunodominant peptides, p21-44, p65-91, p117-140 and p200-220. All four immunodominant peptides could elicit cellular immunity with a predominance of CD8⁺ T-cell response. This data may have important implication for developing SARS vaccines.