Alexander R. Nicols, Yesun Lee, Zion Congrave-Wilson, Minjun Kim, Wesley A. Cheng, Jaycee Jumarang, Jocelyn Navarro, Rafaella Navarro, Yamile Rodriguez-Angeles, David Durand, Zackary W Taylor, R. Garcia de León, Theresa J. Ochoa, Alessandro Sette, Ricardo Filipe da Silva Antunes, Pia S. Pannaraj
Despite evidence of varying vaccine effectiveness, T cell responses to rotavirus (RV) vaccines remain incompletely studied. To address this research gap, RV-specific T cells in the blood of infants pre- and post-monovalent RV vaccination (RV1) were analyzed for memory recall and functionality using RV-specific peptide pool stimulation. We find that RV vaccine elicits heterogenous responses with respect to cellular and humoral immunity. T cell responses to RV vaccine are detectable in the periphery, though poorly functional. Vaccination induces Th2-biased conventional effector memory and central memory CD4 + T cells, as suggested by chemokine receptor profiles, though the response wanes by 8 months post vaccination. The presence of preexisting immunity results in no significant increase in either RV-specific IgA or T cells after vaccination. Our data provides the first in-depth assessment of RV-specific T cell responses induced by vaccine, demonstrating patterns of negative and positive association with response that may play a role in protection against rotavirus disease.