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Kocher, K.* ; Drost, F. ; Schülein, C.* ; Spriewald, B.* ; Schubert, B. ; Schober, K.*

Integrating complementary approaches reveals antigen-reactive CD4+ T cell states after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.

iScience 29:116175 (2026)
Verlagsversion Forschungsdaten DOI
Open Access Gold
Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag
Understanding antigen reactivity is crucial for characterizing CD4+ T helper (Th) cell fate, yet conventional peptide restimulation assays introduce phenotypic bias by activating cells ex vivo. By combining single-cell RNA and T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing on antigen-stimulated and unstimulated samples, clonotypes can be tracked across conditions to identify antigen-reactive CD4+ T cells while assessing their phenotypes in the unperturbed state. Using this “reverse phenotyping” strategy, complemented by DNA-barcoded peptide-HLA class II multimers and TCR similarity metrics, we tracked SARS-CoV-2 spike-reactive CD4+ T cells longitudinally after repeated mRNA vaccination. Without stimulation, reactive clones showed more Th-neutral features and less activated Th1-like states than after restimulation. Furthermore, transgenic TCR re-expression further separated antigen-specific from bystander-activated clones. These results demonstrate the complementary value of different methods to identify and characterize antigen-reactive CD4+ T cells, and highlight that cell state classification can differ when defined by phenotype versus function.
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Publikationstyp Artikel: Journalartikel
Dokumenttyp Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
Schlagwörter Immunology ; Therapeutics ; Virology
ISSN (print) / ISBN 2589-0042
e-ISSN 2589-0042
Zeitschrift iScience
Quellenangaben Band: 29, Heft: 6, Seiten: , Artikelnummer: 116175 Supplement: ,
Verlag Elsevier
Verlagsort Amsterdam ; Bosten ; London ; New York ; Oxford ; Paris ; Philadelphia ; San Diego ; St. Louis
Begutachtungsstatus Peer reviewed
Institut(e) Institute of Computational Biology (ICB)