Role of senescent CD4 T cells in breakthrough infection of the new variant strain of SARS-CoV-2 in elderly patients.

Background: In late 2022, Beijing, China saw a large-scale BF.7 Omicron variant breakthrough infection. However, the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on elderly breakthrough-infected patients' antibodies and immune cells response was unclear.

Methods: We recruited 329 inpatients over 65 with BF.7 breakthrough infections. We analyzed the link between vaccination and survival in 67 sampled patients, investigating changes in antibody levels, cytokine profiles, as well as immune phenotypes.

Results: Experiments revealed that while vaccination could raise antibody levels in the elderly, it showed no significant neutralizing activity against the emerging COVID-19 variant XBB. Flow cytometry showed vaccination increased the proportion of CD4 senescent T cells. Moreover, we found that elevated frequencies of CD4 Tsens cells were associated with reduced antigen-specific CD4 T cell activation, diminished IL-2 production, and lower proportions of Tfh cells, which ultimately leading to impaired neutralizing antibody production, particularly against new emerging variants.

Conclusions: We found the immunological efficacy of inactivated vaccines in elderly patients is influenced by the proportion of CD4 senescent T cells. Future elderly vaccination strategies need optimization in dose number and timing, and future vaccine design should aim to minimize the generation of CD4 senescent T cells.