AUTHOR=Pettini Elena , Medaglini Donata , Ciabattini Annalisa TITLE=Profiling the B cell immune response elicited by vaccination against the respiratory virus SARS-CoV-2 JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1058748 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2022.1058748 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

B cells play a fundamental role in host defenses against viral infections. Profiling the B cell response elicited by SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, including the generation and persistence of antigen-specific memory B cells, is essential for improving the knowledge of vaccine immune responsiveness, beyond the antibody response. mRNA-based vaccines have shown to induce a robust class-switched memory B cell response that persists overtime and is boosted by further vaccine administration, suggesting that memory B cells are critical in driving a recall response upon re-exposure to SARS-CoV-2 antigens. Here, we focus on the role of the B cell response in the context of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, offering an overview of the different technologies that can be used to identify spike-specific B cells, characterize their phenotype using machine learning approaches, measure their capacity to reactivate following antigen encounter, and tracking the maturation of the B cell receptor antigenic affinity.