The impact of viral mutations on recognition by SARS-CoV-2 specific T-cells
de Silva T., Liu G., B Lindsey B., Dong D., Shah D., J. Mentzer A., Angyal A., Brown R., D. Parker M., Ying Z., Yao X., Turtle L., Dunachie S., COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium ., K. Maini M., Ogg G., Knight J., Peng Y., Rowland-Jones S., Dong T.
We identify amino acid variants within dominant SARS-CoV-2 T-cell epitopes by interrogating global sequence data. Several variants within nucleocapsid and ORF3a epitopes have arisen independently in multiple lineages and result in loss of recognition by epitope-specific T-cells assessed by IFN-γ and cytotoxic killing assays. These data demonstrate the potential for T-cell evasion and highlight the need for ongoing surveillance for variants capable of escaping T-cell as well as humoral immunity.