SARS-CoV-2-Reactive Mucosal B Cells in the Upper Respiratory Tract of Uninfected Individuals

Liu, Yanling; Budylowski, Patrick; Dong, Shilan; Li, Zhijie; Goroshko, Sofiya; Leung, Leslie Y T; Grunebaum, Eyal; Campisi, Paolo; Propst, Evan J; Wolter, Nikolas E; Rini, James M; Zia, Amin; Ostrowski, Mario; Ehrhardt, Götz R A

SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory pathogen that can cause severe disease in at-risk populations but results in asymptomatic infections or a mild course of disease in the majority of cases. We report the identification of SARS-CoV-2-reactive B cells in human tonsillar tissue obtained from children who were negative for coronavirus disease 2019 prior to the pandemic and the generation of mAbs recognizing the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein from these B cells. These Abs showed reduced binding to Spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 variants and did not recognize Spike proteins of endemic coronaviruses, but subsets reacted with commensal microbiota and exhibited SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing potential. Our study demonstrates pre-existing SARS-CoV-2-reactive Abs in various B cell populations in the upper respiratory tract lymphoid tissue that may lead to the rapid engagement of the pathogen and contribute to prevent manifestations of symptomatic or severe disease.