Activation and induction of antigen-specific T follicular helper cells play a critical role in recombinant SARS-CoV-2 RBD vaccine-induced humoral responses

The role of follicular T helper (Tfh) cells in humoral response has been considered essential in recent years. Understanding how Tfh cells control complex humoral immunity is critical to developing strategies to improve the efficacy of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging pathogens. However, the immunologic mechanism of Tfh cells in SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) vaccine strategy is limited. In this study, we expressed and purified recombinant SARS-CoV-2 RBD protein in Drosophila S2 cells for the first time and explored the mechanism of Tfh cells induced by RBD vaccine in humoral immune response. We mapped the dynamic of Tfh cell in lymph node and spleen following RBD vaccination and revealed the relationship between Tfh cells and humoral immune response induced by SARS-CoV-2 RBD vaccine through correlation analysis, blocking of IL-21 signaling pathway, and co-culture of Tfh with memory B cells. Recombinant RBD protein elicited a predominant Tfh1 and Tfh1-17 subset response and strong GC responses in spleen and lymph nodes, especially to enhanced vaccination. IL-21 secreted by Tfh cells affected the development and differentiation of B cells and played a key role in the humoral immune response. These observations will help us further understand the mechanism of protective immune response induced by COVID-19 vaccine and has guiding significance for the development of vaccines against newly emerging mutants. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43556-023-00145-z.