Figure 1.

mRNA vaccination elicits antigen-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell responses

(A) Longitudinal study design and representative flow cytometry plots for identifying AIM⁺ CD4⁺ T cells (left) and visualizing AIM⁺ CD8⁺ T cells (right). Numbers represent the frequency of total non-naive CD4⁺ or CD8⁺ T cells. The CD4-S peptide megapool was used for analysis of CD4⁺ T cells, while the CD8-E peptide megapool was used for analysis of CD8⁺ T cells.

(B) Summary plots of AIM⁺ CD4⁺ (left) and CD8⁺ (right) T cells defined as indicated above each plot. AIM⁺ CD8⁺ T cells were quantified throughout the study on the basis of expression of at least four of five activation induced markers (CD200, CD40L, 41BB, CD107a, and intracellular IFN-γ), as in Figure S1C. Values represent the frequency of AIM⁺ non-naive cells after subtracting the frequency from paired unstimulated samples. Solid lines connect individual donors sampled longitudinally. Statistics were calculated using unpaired Wilcoxon test. n.s., not significant. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001, ∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001. Blue indicates SARS-CoV-2-naive, red indicates SARS-CoV-2-recovered individuals.

Longitudinal samples from 36 SARS-CoV-2-naive and 11 SARS-CoV-2-recovered individuals were used for each experiment, analyzed in nine independent batches. All paired longitudinal samples were analyzed within a single batch. See also Figures S1 and S2.