key: cord-0923552-6ujlwpb4 authors: Gombar, S.; Bergquist, T.; Pejaver, V.; Hammarlund, N.; Murugesan, K.; Mooney, S.; Shah, N.; Pinsky, B.; Banaei, N. title: SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity in individuals with prior seasonal coronavirus infection. date: 2020-12-07 journal: nan DOI: 10.1101/2020.12.04.20243741 sha: 4f33dafec6aa7193bde0287d149b5e3ee32024e5 doc_id: 923552 cord_uid: 6ujlwpb4 A sizable fraction of healthy blood donors have cross-reactive T cells to SARS-CoV-2 peptides due to prior infection with seasonal coronavirus. Understanding the role of cross-reactive T cells in immunity to SARS-CoV-2 has implications for managing the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that individuals with documented history of seasonal coronavirus have a similar SARS-CoV-2 infection rate and COVID-19 severity as those with no prior history of seasonal coronavirus. Our findings suggest prior infection with seasonal coronavirus does not provide immunity to subsequent infection with SARS-CoV-2. 2 Fax 650-725-5671 nbanaei@stanford.edu All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted December 7, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.04.20243741 doi: medRxiv preprint Abstract A sizable fraction of healthy blood donors have cross-reactive T cells to SARS-CoV-2 peptides due to prior infection with seasonal coronavirus. Understanding the role of cross-reactive T cells in immunity to SARS-CoV-2 has implications for managing the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that individuals with documented history of seasonal coronavirus have a similar SARS-CoV-2 infection rate and COVID-19 severity as those with no prior history of seasonal coronavirus. Our findings suggest prior infection with seasonal coronavirus does not provide immunity to subsequent infection with SARS-CoV-2. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted December 7, 2020. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted December 7, 2020. Table) . We also did not observe a higher SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate in patients ≥65 vs (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted December 7, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.04.20243741 doi: medRxiv preprint Table 1 . SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positivity rate in patients with history of seasonal coronavirus prior to COVID-19 pandemic. Table 2 . Severity of COVID-19 in patients with history of seasonal coronavirus prior to COVID-19 pandemic. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted December 7, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.04.20243741 doi: medRxiv preprint SARS-CoV-2-reactive T cells in healthy donors and patients with COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity in cases of COVID-19 and SARS, and uninfected controls Selective and cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes in unexposed humans Targets of T Cell Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus in Humans with COVID-19 Disease and Unexposed Individuals Single-Cell Transcriptomic Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Phenotype and kinetics of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells in COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome Prior infection by seasonal coronaviruses does not prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and associated Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children No reuse allowed without permission. (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted reactive memory T cells are needed to confirm lack of protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 or modulation of COVID-19 severity in individuals with pre-existing cross-reactive T cells to seasonal coronaviruses.