ImmuneRACE - Immune Response Action to COVID-19 Events

Comparison of disease-specific TCR signatures in patients and controls

时间窗: Baseline

We will run immunoSEQ on approximately 1000 patient samples with disease status unblinded. After sequencing these samples, we will quantitatively describe the compartment of the T-cell repertoire specific for the disease of interest. We will then use these data to construct a classifier that accurately distinguishes patients from controls.

Identify the immunodominant antigens that elicit a T-cell response to COVID-19

时间窗: Baseline

We developed technology to query the antigen specificity of the T-cell repertoire to hundreds of peptide epitopes in a single blood sample5. This technology not only allows us to parse out immunodominant epitopes of a given infection from irrelevant epitopes, but also allows us to determine the TCR sequences of the T cells responding to these immunodominant epitopes. We will use this technology to determine which peptide epitopes derived from the SARS-CoV-2 genome commonly elicit an immunodominant T-cell response in different samples. The TCR sequence data generated from these studies will be used to boost the diagnostic classifier obtained in Aim 1. In addition, the identification of immunodominant epitopes can be disseminated to fuel studies in vaccine design and antigen specific T-cell responses relating to clinical outcome in other labs.

Risk Stratification based on an individual's immune signature

时间窗: Baseline

There is a critical need for a reliable risk stratification test to enable treatment prioritization given the potentially massive number of symptomatic patients. Despite an emerging understanding of the diagnosis of COVID-19, how it spreads, and the death rate, there is no currently available way to predict who needs hospitalization beyond age associated risk and limited epidemiologically linked comorbidities.

Determine whether an immune signature can be detected in individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2 earlier than currently available tests

时间窗: Baseline

Another critical need to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is to determine the false negative rate of the RNA test in asymptomatic people and offer an alternative diagnostic that is more sensitive in this cohort. For example, it is possible that early stage disease is not picked up by RNA tests because the virus may be isolated to regions such as the lower respiratory cavity that are not assessed by standard testing methods. We aim to determine whether the immune response can be used to detect the virus from a simple blood test thereby providing a more sensitive test in asymptomatic people even if the virus itself is not directly detectable in the upper respiratory region.