Humoral and Cellular Immune Responses to SARS-CoV-2 in Participants with Head and Neck Cancer
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: SARS-CoV-2 immunity is understudied in cancer patients. Here, we monitored natural/vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2 immunity in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) stratified as vaccinated (mRNA/adenovirus-based vaccines), convalescent, and hybrid immunity. Methods: Plasma/PBMC samples were collected from 49 patients with HNC and 14 non-oncologic controls recruited between August 2021 and March 2022. Longitudinal follow-up was performed on 25 HNC patients. Plasma antibodies (Abs) against Spike (S1/S2), receptor-binding domain (RBD), and nucleocapsid (NC) of IgG/IgA isotypes and 25 cytokines/chemokines were quantified using MILLIPLEX® technology. The frequency, phenotype, and isotype of circulating SARS-CoV-2-specific B-cells were studied by flow cytometry using RBD tetramers (Tet++). The proliferation of B-cells and CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells in response to Spike/NC peptides was monitored by a carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) assay. Results: Plasma SARS-CoV-2 S1/S2/RBD IgG/IgA Abs were detected in all HNC participants at enrollment median time since immunization (TSI) 117 days at levels similar to controls and were significantly higher in convalescent/hybrid versus vaccinated. NC IgG/IgA Abs were only detected after infection. The frequency of Tet++ B-cells, enriched in the CD27+ memory phenotype and IgG/IgA isotype, positively correlated with plasma levels of RBD IgG/IgA Abs and Spike-specific CD4+ T-cell proliferation, regardless of the immunization status and TSI. Spike/NC-specific B-cell proliferation reached the highest levels in convalescent HNC and was positively correlated with NC IgG Abs, but not with the frequency of Tet++ B-cells. Finally, Tet++ B-cell frequencies remained stable between the two subsequent visits (median TSI: 117 versus 341 days), indicating their ability to persist for a relatively long time. Conclusions: This study monitored SARS-CoV-2 humoral/cellular immunity in an HNC cohort relative to non-oncologic participants and demonstrates that SARS-CoV-2-specific B-cells persist beyond 11 months post-immunization. These findings have implications for the management of HNC in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection and other viral infections.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".