{"doi":"10.1128/jvi.01350-24","title":"Role of antiviral CD8+ T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination","abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title/>\n            <jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly enhanced our understanding of CD8+ T cell immunity and their role in natural infection and vaccine-induced protection. Rapid and early SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cell responses have been associated with efficient viral clearance and mild disease. Virus-specific CD8+ T cell responses can compensate for waning, morbidity-related, and iatrogenic reduction of humoral immunity. After infection or vaccination, SARS-CoV-2-specific memory CD8+ T cells are formed, which mount an efficient recall response in the event of breakthrough infection and help to protect from severe disease. Due to their breadth and ability to target mainly highly conserved epitopes, SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells are also able to cross-recognize epitopes of viral variants, thus maintaining immunity even after the emergence of viral evolution. In some cases, however, CD8+ T cells may contribute to the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19. In particular, delayed and uncontrolled, e.g., nonspecific and hyperactivated, cytotoxic CD8+ T cell responses have been linked to poor COVID-19 outcomes. In this minireview, we summarize the tremendous knowledge about CD8+ T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination that has been gained over the past 5 years, while also highlighting the critical knowledge gaps that remain.</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>","journal":"Journal of Virology","year":2025,"id":640040,"datarank":0.48283137373023016,"base_score":3.2188758248682006,"endowment":3.2188758248682006,"self_citation_contribution":0.48283137373023016,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.48283137373023016,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":24,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1060634,"name":"Maike Hofmann","orcid":"0000-0001-8410-8833","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1004403,"name":"Robert Thimme","orcid":"0000-0003-1417-4135","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1663311,"name":"Vivien Karl","orcid":"0000-0001-7026-7622","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Role of antiviral CD8+ T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination","abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title/>\n            <jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly enhanced our understanding of CD8+ T cell immunity and their role in natural infection and vaccine-induced protection. Rapid and early SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cell responses have been associated with efficient viral clearance and mild disease. Virus-specific CD8+ T cell responses can compensate for waning, morbidity-related, and iatrogenic reduction of humoral immunity. After infection or vaccination, SARS-CoV-2-specific memory CD8+ T cells are formed, which mount an efficient recall response in the event of breakthrough infection and help to protect from severe disease. Due to their breadth and ability to target mainly highly conserved epitopes, SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells are also able to cross-recognize epitopes of viral variants, thus maintaining immunity even after the emergence of viral evolution. In some cases, however, CD8+ T cells may contribute to the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19. In particular, delayed and uncontrolled, e.g., nonspecific and hyperactivated, cytotoxic CD8+ T cell responses have been linked to poor COVID-19 outcomes. In this minireview, we summarize the tremendous knowledge about CD8+ T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination that has been gained over the past 5 years, while also highlighting the critical knowledge gaps that remain.</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":3.1780538303479458,"endowment":3.1780538303479458,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"40029063","pmcid":"PMC11998524","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4408112917","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"German Research Foundation","grant_id":"256073931, 272983813","title":null},{"funder_name":"German Research Foundation","grant_id":"441891347","title":null},{"funder_name":"Helmholtz Association's Initiative and Networking Fund","grant_id":"KA1-Co-02","title":null},{"funder_name":"German Research Foundation","grant_id":"Heisenberg program HO 5836/2-1","title":null},{"funder_name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","grant_id":"unidentified","title":"unidentified"}],"total_grants":5,"fwci":18.0014,"citation_percentile":0.99574244,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2025,"count":9},{"year":2026,"count":14}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01350-24","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01350-24","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/jvi.01350-24","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40029063","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/de66f0b024ea4306b6302e4c1d7e6a97","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/11998524","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/264773","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC11998524","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC11998524?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01350-24","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research","COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies","vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches"],"mesh_terms":["COVID-19","SARS-CoV-2","COVID-19 Vaccines","Humans","Vaccination","CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes"],"keywords":["Biology","Immunity","Cytotoxic T cell","Virology","Immunology","CD8","Vaccination","Immune system","T cell","Epitope","Virus","Pandemic","Disease","Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)","Antibody","Infectious disease (medical specialty)","Medicine","Genetics","Cd8+ T Cells","Covid-19","Sars-cov-2","Virus-specific Immunity","COVID-19 Vaccines","Humans","Minireview","CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-07T05:56:04.905643Z","pmid":null,"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":[]}