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. 2021 Jul 29;12:4678. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24938-4

Fig. 5. SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses increase over time and age.

Fig. 5

Correlation of IFNγ responses for CD4+ (a) and CD8+ (b) T cells against the structural peptide pool with children (red) (n = 34) and adults (black) (n = 36) (with background IFNγ production to DMSO subtracted), against days post symptom onset. Black dotted lines represent the limit of detection (IFNγ of CD4+ = 0.000167 (a), IFNγ of CD8+ = 0.00011(b)). Fold change of IFNγ CD4+ (c) and CD8+ (d) T cell responses were calculated as the later time point (mean ± stdev: 32.8 ± 35.7 days, range: 9–138) over admission time point responses (mean±stdev: 7.6 ± 4.2, range: 2–15)) in response to the structural, accessory and ORF1ab peptide pools in children and adults from two independent experiments (children n = 14, adults n = 14). Data is representative of individual data points with boxes and whiskers graphs showing the median, upper and lower quartiles, minimum and maximum. One-sample Wilcoxon tests were used for determining significance of fold changes, where *p<0.05. Acute (samples < 14 days post symptom onset, mean ± stdev: 8.0 ± 3.8, range: 1–14, n = 22 children, n = 14 adults) (e–g), and convalescent/memory (h–j) (mean ± stdev: 70.5 ± 41.9, range: 15–180 days post symptom onset, n = 12 children, n = 22 adults) IFNγ structural specific (f, i) CD4+ and (g, j) CD8+ T cell responses and negative controls (n=10). Data in e and h show individual data points with mean±SD. For statistical comparisons between children and adults, or adults and negatives, two-tailed Mann–Whitney tests were performed, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. The magnitude of the acute (from e) and memory (from h) structural IFNγ CD4+ (f, i) and CD8+ (g, j) T cell response with age. (a, b, f, g, i, and j) r and p values are calculated using two-tailed Spearman’s correlation and *p < 0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, ****p<0.0001. Blue lines of linear regression represent the overall trend, and blue dotted lines show the upper and lower 95% confidence intervals. All data points are individual responses minus paired background IFNγ response to a DMSO control. (d) *p = 0.0245, (e) ****p < 0.0001, (h) *p = 0.0162, 0.0219, **p = 0.0074, ****p < 0.0001.