Affiliations:
1.Department of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, School of Basic
Medical Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710061,
China
2.Institute
of Infection and Immunity,
Translational
Medicine Institute, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710061,
China
3. NHC Key Laboratory of AIDS
Immunology (China Medical University), National Clinical Research Center
for Laboratory Medicine, The First
Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China
4.Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases (Xi’an
Jiaotong University), Ministry of Education, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710061,
China
5.Xi’an Key Laboratory of Immune
Related Diseases (Xi’an Jiaotong
University), Xi’an, Shaanxi 710061, China
*Correspondence to:
bj.zhang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (Baojun
Zhang), huizhang1218@163.com (Hui Zhang)Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused widespread transmission and been
threatening health and lives due to high infectivity, acute progression
and lacking of effective treatment. Both innate immunity and adaptive
immunity are essential to defend against viral infection, while T cells
function as a bridge of both arms and induce effective immune responses.
Although traditional approaches demonstrate general features of T cells
in COVID-19 patients, there are still a lot of unknown details to be
characterized due to the complexity of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Single-cell
RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology is able to powerfully characterize
gene expression at single-cell level and new subsets at district
differentiation stage or with specific function. Here we have revealed
the heterogeneity of the host T cells, including CD4+T cells, CD8+ T cells, regulatory T (Treg) cells,
natural killer T (NKT) cells, gamma-delta T (γδT) cells and
mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells in COVID-19 patients with
different clinical manifestations. T cell based therapeutic approaches,
including enhancing virus specific T cell responses, reverting T-cell
exhaustion and alleviating inflammation, are also discussed. This review
provides insights into clinical treatment and vaccine design for
SARS-CoV-2 infection.