Suboptimal Humoral Immunity in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection and Viral Variant Generation

Shiv Pillai

doi:10.1016/j.cll.2021.10.001

Suboptimal Humoral Immunity in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection and Viral Variant Generation

Clin Lab Med. 2022 Mar;42(1):75-84. doi: 10.1016/j.cll.2021.10.001. Epub 2021 Nov 3.

Author

Shiv Pillai¹

Affiliation

¹ Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Electronic address: pillai@helix.mgh.harvard.edu.

Abstract

This review describes the underlying basis for the sup-optimal humoral immune response in coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 including the absence of evidence for affinity maturation in the vast majority of patients and the absence of germinal centers even in severe disease. Suboptimal humoral and cellular immunity may provide the optimal conditions for the generation and selection of viral variants.

Keywords: COVID-19; Germinal centers; Humoral immunity; Immune pressure; SARS-CoV-2; T follicular helper cells; Variant generation.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Review

MeSH terms

Antibodies, Viral
COVID-19*
Humans
Immunity, Cellular
Immunity, Humoral*
SARS-CoV-2

Substances

Antibodies, Viral

Grants and funding

U19 AI110495/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States