The immune response to the vaccine is studied at the level of individual T-cells
The diverse repertoire of T-cells plays a key role in the adaptive immune response. Researchers from the Laboratory of Comparative and Functional Genomics in collaboration with IKMB (Kiel, Germany) and ENS (Paris, France) used high throughput sequencing of alpha/beta T-cell receptors (TCR) as well as single cell RNA sequencing to analyse the alterations in T-cell repertoire after primary and secondary vaccination against yellow fever. The response to the secondary vaccination is an order of magnitude weaker, but much faster than the primary one. More than 60% of all cytotoxic response could be focused on a single epitope of the yellow fever virus. Researchers characterized distinctive motifs in amino acid TCR sequences that are essential for the recognition of this immunodominant epitope. The study is published in eLife.
february 27, 2020