{"doi":"10.1101/2021.12.03.21267036","title":"Spike-specific T cells are enriched in breastmilk following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination","abstract":"Human breastmilk is rich in T cells; however, their specificity and function are largely unknown. We compared the phenotype, diversity, and antigen specificity of T cells in the breastmilk and peripheral blood of lactating individuals who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination. Relative to blood, breastmilk contained higher frequencies of T effector and central memory populations that expressed mucosal-homing markers. T cell receptor (TCR) sequence overlap was limited between blood and breastmilk. Overabundan t breastmilk clones were observed in all individuals, were diverse, and contained CDR3 sequences with known epitope specificity including to SARS-CoV-2 Spike. Spike-specific TCRs were more frequent in breastmilk compared to blood and expanded in breastmilk following a third mRNA vaccine dose. Our observations indicate that the lactating breast contains a distinct T cell population that can be modulated by maternal vaccination with potential implications for infant passive protection. One-Sentence Summary: The breastmilk T cell repertoire is distinct and enriched for SARS-CoV-2 Spike-specificity after maternal mRNA vaccination.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2021,"id":215653,"datarank":0.29188652235829704,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"self_citation_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9535,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":413665,"name":"Yonghou Jiang","orcid":"0000-0002-6669-2367","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":810514,"name":"Marc Carlson","orcid":"0000-0002-0847-4011","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":582717,"name":"Emily S. Ford","orcid":"0000-0001-7358-798X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":715622,"name":"Saumya Jani","orcid":"0000-0003-1212-1961","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":70196,"name":"J. C. Houck","orcid":"0000-0002-6761-6796","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":587044,"name":"Xia Wu","orcid":"0000-0002-0024-4481","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294665,"name":"Lichen Jing","orcid":"0000-0002-5938-4171","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":697367,"name":"Tiffany Pecor","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":336562,"name":"Alisa Kachikis","orcid":"0000-0003-0358-5107","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":647869,"name":"Winnie Yeung","orcid":"0000-0001-9792-0548","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":726108,"name":"Tina Nguyen","orcid":"0000-0003-0709-3636","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":719710,"name":"Nana Minkah","orcid":"0000-0002-5044-7359","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":696727,"name":"Sasha E. Larsen","orcid":"0000-0001-5034-9727","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":439437,"name":"Rhea N. Coler","orcid":"0000-0001-6974-5666","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294672,"name":"David M. Koelle","orcid":"0000-0003-1255-9023","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":329810,"name":"Whitney E. Harrington","orcid":"0000-0002-0121-978X","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":423571,"name":"Blair Armistead","orcid":"0000-0001-9902-3955","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":50,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:52:55.971300Z","pmid":"36203549","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":[]}