Fig. 4: Lower vaccine-induced, Spike-specific T cells in older adults correlate with increased frequency of immunosenescent T cells, reduced frequency of TH1 and TFH cells and skewed response to the S2-region of the Spike protein. | Nature Aging

Fig. 4: Lower vaccine-induced, Spike-specific T cells in older adults correlate with increased frequency of immunosenescent T cells, reduced frequency of TH1 and TFH cells and skewed response to the S2-region of the Spike protein.

From: Signs of immunosenescence correlate with poor outcome of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in older adults

Fig. 4

ac, Frequency of CD57+KLRG1+ senescent CD4+ (upper) and CD8+ (lower) T cells for each age group (light blue, 22–40 years, n = 22; red, 41–65 years, n = 22; gray, ≥66 years, n = 16) (a) and their correlation with Spike-specific IFN-γ response measured by ELISpot (CD4+, not significant; CD8+, r = −0.352, P = 0.0058) (b) or flow cytometry (CD4+, not significant; CD8+, r = −0.376, P = 0.003) (c). d, Frequency of circulating TFH cells in the different age groups (light blue, 22–40 years, n = 22; red, 41–65 years, n = 22; gray, ≥66 years, n = 16), identified based on the expression of CD4+ and the homing receptor CXCR5. e, Frequency of Spike-specific TFH cells producing IFN-γ, IL-2 or TNF-α in vaccinated individuals (light blue, 22–40 years, n = 22; red, 41–65 years, n = 22; gray, ≥66 years. n = 16). f, Proportion of T cells directed to the S1 (filled circle) or S2 (open circle) region of the Spike protein in IFN-γ responder individuals (light blue, 22–40 years, n = 22; red, 41–65 years, n = 23; gray, ≥66 years, n = 13). Spike-specific response of circulating TFH cells was analyzed on non-naïve CD4+ T cells. The gating strategy is depicted in Extended Data Fig. 2. Each dot represents a single study individual and the horizontal lines indicate the medians. The red line represents the linear regression and a two-tailed Spearman test was used to the test the significance (r and P values). P values were determined by a two-tailed Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparison correction; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.

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