Fig. 1: SARS-CoV-2 elicits robust humoral immune responses in children.
From: Adaptive immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 persist in the pharyngeal lymphoid tissue of children
a, Enrollment of post-COV and UC individuals and study design. b, Time from previous positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR/antigen test to tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy in 11 individuals with known previous infection. c, Neutralizing antibody titers (PsVNA50) against the early isolate WA-1 and seven other SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest (post-COV, n = 23; UC, n = 14). d, Correlation between neutralizing antibody titers to WA-1 and days from positive SARS-CoV-2 test to surgery (n = 10). Spearman’s rank correlation (r) and P values are noted. e, Frequency of SARS-CoV-2-specific (S1+RBD+) cells among total CD19+ B cells from PBMCs, adenoids and tonsils from post-COV and UC donors (PBMCs post-COV, n = 18; UC, n = 33; adenoids post-COV, n = 16; UC, n = 27; and tonsil post-COV, n = 16; UC, n = 30; all P < 10−6). f, Representative flow cytometry plots showing the percentage of S1+RBD+ cells among IgD−CD38−CD27+CD19+ switched memory B cells (CD27+ BSM) in post-COV PBMCs, adenoids and tonsils. g, Composition of S1+RBD+ B cells and total B cells from post-COV PBMCs (n = 18), adenoids (n = 16) and tonsils (n = 16). Mean frequency of each B cell subset (defined in Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2) shown in pie chart. ASC, antibody secreting cells equivalent to plasma cells and plasmablasts; CD27+ BUM, CD27+IgD+ unswitched memory B. h, Images of adenoids and tonsils showing GCs from one post-COV donor and one UC, representative of three post-COV and three UC donors. Inset shows close-up of GC and light (CD21, follicular dendritic cells, cyan) and dark zones (Ki-67, dividing cells, red). CD138 (plasma cell and epithelial cell marker) in blue. Scale bars, 1 mm (top), 2 mm (middle) and 200 μm (bottom). i, Composition of S1+RBD+ IgD−CD27−CD38−CD19+ DN B cells and total DN B cells from post-COV PBMCs (n = 18), adenoids (n = 16) and tonsils (n = 16). Mean frequency of each DN subset is shown in bar chart. Mean ± s.d. are displayed in bar and scatter-plots. Each dot represents one donor. Significance calculated with two-sided Mann–Whitney U-test. ****P < 0.0001.
