{"doi":"10.3390/ijms232315201","title":"Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells Induce Apoptosis-Independent T Cell Hyporesponsiveness of SARS-CoV-2-Specific T Cells in an Antigen-Specific Manner","abstract":"Although the global pandemic caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still ongoing, there are currently no specific and highly efficient drugs for COVID-19 available, particularly in severe cases. Recent findings demonstrate that severe COVID-19 disease that requires hospitalization is associated with the hyperactivation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets. In this study, we aimed to counteract this high inflammatory state by inducing T-cell hyporesponsiveness in a SARS-CoV-2-specific manner using tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDC). In vitro-activated SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells were isolated and stimulated with SARS-CoV-2 peptide-loaded monocyte-derived tolDC or with SARS-CoV-2 peptide-loaded conventional (conv) DC. We demonstrate a significant decrease in the number of interferon (IFN)-γ spot-forming cells when SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells were stimulated with tolDC as compared to stimulation with convDC. Importantly, this IFN-γ downmodulation in SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells was antigen-specific, since T cells retain their capacity to respond to an unrelated antigen and are not mediated by T cell deletion. Altogether, we have demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 peptide-pulsed tolDC induces SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell hyporesponsiveness in an antigen-specific manner as compared to stimulation with SARS-CoV-2-specific convDC. These observations underline the clinical potential of tolDC to correct the immunological imbalance in the critically ill.","journal":"International Journal of Molecular Sciences","year":2022,"id":280021,"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":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9548,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":954071,"name":"Ibo Janssens","orcid":"0000-0001-8908-3110","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":954518,"name":"Amber Dams","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":954519,"name":"Laurence Roosens","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":954072,"name":"Benson Ogunjimi","orcid":"0000-0002-0831-2063","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":954073,"name":"Zwi Berneman","orcid":"0000-0002-9133-4588","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":954074,"name":"Judith Derdelinckx","orcid":"0000-0003-0898-1432","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":954075,"name":"Nathalie Cools","orcid":"0000-0002-0459-901X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":954070,"name":"Mats Van Delen","orcid":"0000-0002-9779-1130","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":63,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:28:59.341002Z","pmid":"36499533","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":[]}