{"doi":"10.1101/2020.07.07.191007","title":"SARS-CoV-2 infection induces germinal center responses with robust stimulation of CD4 T follicular helper cells in rhesus macaques","abstract":"ABSTRACT CD4 T follicular helper (T fh ) cells are important for the generation of long-lasting and specific humoral protection against viral infections. The degree to which SARS-CoV-2 infection generates T fh cells and stimulates the germinal center response is an important question as we investigate vaccine options for the current pandemic. Here we report that, following infection with SARS-CoV-2, adult rhesus macaques exhibited transient accumulation of activated, proliferating T fh cells in their peripheral blood on a transitory basis. The CD4 helper cell responses were skewed predominantly toward a T h 1 response in blood, lung, and lymph nodes, reflective of the interferon-rich cytokine environment following infection. We also observed the generation of germinal center T fh cells specific for the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins, and a corresponding early appearance of antiviral serum IgG antibodies but delayed or absent IgA antibodies. Our data suggest that a vaccine promoting Th1-type Tfh responses that target the S protein may lead to protective immunity.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2020,"id":120319,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9591,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":558226,"name":"Yashavanth Shaan Lakshmanappa","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":340725,"name":"Jamin W. Roh","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":405166,"name":"Brian Schmidt","orcid":"0000-0002-3405-4862","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":557439,"name":"Timothy D. Carroll","orcid":"0000-0002-3459-3364","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":558227,"name":"Kourtney D. Weaver","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":557440,"name":"Justin C. Smith","orcid":"0000-0001-7702-7920","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":513809,"name":"Jesse D. Deere","orcid":"0000-0002-2539-0338","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":557441,"name":"Joseph Dutra","orcid":"0000-0002-5553-5200","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":246884,"name":"Mars Stone","orcid":"0000-0001-5619-2767","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":425694,"name":"Rebecca L. Sammak","orcid":"0000-0003-3271-0413","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":557442,"name":"Katherine J. Olstad","orcid":"0000-0003-3894-0981","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":515986,"name":"J. Rachel Reader","orcid":"0000-0003-3864-6731","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":557443,"name":"Zhong-Min Ma","orcid":"0000-0003-3713-7337","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":558228,"name":"Nancy K. Nguyen","orcid":null,"position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":407468,"name":"Jennifer Watanabe","orcid":"0000-0001-9408-3991","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":558229,"name":"Jodie Usachaenko","orcid":null,"position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":477728,"name":"Ramya Immareddy","orcid":"0000-0002-3612-1985","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":413410,"name":"JoAnn L. 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Elizaldi","orcid":"0000-0001-7464-8721","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":61,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:14:33.640077Z","pmid":"32676606","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}