Chinese scholars have made progress in the identification of novel coronavirus specific T cell receptors


  

  Figure Screening and identification process of COVID-19 specific TCR

  Under the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 92374105) and other programs, the research group of Professor Wang Kejia of Xiamen University School of Medicine has made progress in the identification of novel coronavirus specific T cell receptors. The research achievement was entitled "Identification of novel coronavirus specific T cell and its receptor", and was published in the Journal of Hematology&Oncology on March 27, 2024. The paper link is as follows: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13045-024-01537-6 .

  To solve the problem of insufficient immune response to neutralizing antibodies induced by novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine and unclear precise recognition mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 specific T-cell receptor (TCR), the research team developed a machine learning model to predict COVID-19 TCR library based on the analysis of immune group library; From human peripheral blood, TCR sequences that can recognize COVID-19 antigens were screened by specific antigenic peptide stimulation, immunogroup library sequencing (IR seq), and prediction TCR recognition immunogenic polypeptide framework based on deep learning (DLpTCR), and TCR-T engineering cells were prepared; Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA seq), IR seq, flow cytometry and other methods were used to evaluate the vaccine induced cellular immune response, and it was found that COVID-19 nasal spray vaccine can effectively stimulate the immune response. This study revealed the evolution and function of specific T cells after COVID-19 infection, clarified the targeted recognition mechanism of TCR for COVID-19 epitopes, and expanded the application of accurate recognition of T cells in virus infection through TCR-T.