Landscape of B Cell Receptor Repertoires in COVID-19 Patients Revealed Through CDR3 Sequencing of Immunoglobulin Heavy and Light Chains. (3rd October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gao, Hongzhi; Yu, Liying; Yan, Furong; Zheng, Youxian; Huang, Hongbo; Zhuang, Xibin; Zeng, Yiming
• Is Part Of: Immunological investigations. Volume 51:Number 7(2022)
• Page Start: 1994
• Page End: 2008
• Publication Date: 2022-10-03
• Subjects: BCR sequencing -- COVID-19 -- heavy chain -- light chain -- SARS-CoV-2; Immunology -- Periodicals; Immunochemistry -- Periodicals; Cellular immunity -- Periodicals; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; 616.079
• DOI: 10.1080/08820139.2022.2092407
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0882-0139

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The outbreak and persistence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) threaten human health. B cells play a vital role in fighting the infections caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Despite many studies on the immune responses in COVID-19 patients, it is still unclear how B cell receptor (BCR) constituents, including immunoglobulin heavy (IGHs) and light chains (IGLs), respond to SARS-CoV-2 in patients with varying symptoms. In this study, we conducted complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) sequencing of BCR IGHs and IGLs from the peripheral blood of COVID-19 patients and healthy donors. The results showed significantly reduced clonal diversity, more expanded clones, and longer CDR3 lengths of IGH and IGL in COVID-19 patients than those in healthy individuals. The IGLs had a much higher percentage of VJ skew usage (47.83% IGLV and 42.86% IGLJ were significantly regulated) than the IGHs (12.09% IGHV and 0% IGHJ) between the healthy individuals and patients, which indicated the importance of BCR light chains. Furthermore, we found a largely expanded IGLV3-25 gene cluster mostly pairing with IGLJ1 and ILGJ2 in COVID-19 patients and a newly identified upregulated IGLJ1 gene and IGLJ2 + IGLV13-21 recombination, both of which are potential sources of SARS-CoV-2-targeting antibodies. Our findings on specific immune B-cell signatures associated with COVID-19 have clinical implications for vaccine and biomarker development for disease diagnosis.