CEI: A Clonal Expansion Identifier for T-cell receptor clones following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination

Each T cell typically carries a specific T-cell receptor (TCR) that determines its specificity against an epitope presented by the HLA complex on a target cell. Antigenic challenge triggers the expansion of reactive cells within a diverse pool of T cells with randomly generated receptors, a process that results in epitope-driven shifts of TCR frequencies over time. Here, we analyze the effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on the TCR populations in peripheral blood drawn from seven COVID-naive individuals, before vaccines were widely available. To identify SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-associated TCR sequences among the ~ 10⁵ - 10⁶ TCR sequences sampled before and after vaccination, we develop statistical criteria to detect significant increases in abundance of positive TCR clones. Application of our statistical methods shows a robust identification of TCR sequences that respond to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in vivo, illustrating the feasibility of quantifying the clone-specific dynamics of T-cell abundance changes following immunological perturbations.