Short title: Long-term SARS-CoV-2 Specific Memory B cells
Constantin J. Thieme1*, Mohamed
Abou-el-Enein1,2,3*, Enrico
Fritsche1, Moritz Anft4, Sarah
Skrzypczyk4, Adrian Doevelaar5,
Magdi Elsallab1,3, Nicola Brindle1,
Krystallenia Paniskaki6, Felix S.
Seibert5, Oliver Witzke6, Timm H.
Westhoff5, Ulrik Stervbo4, Guido
Heine7*, Toralf Roch1,4*, Nina
Babel1,4*
1Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate
Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and
Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies,
and Institute of Medical Immunology, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353
Berlin, Germany
2 Division of Medical Oncology, Department of
Medicine, and Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine,
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,
CA USA
3Cell therapy program, Keck School of Medicine,
University of Southern California, and Children Hospital Los Angeles
(CHLA), Los Angeles, CA USA
4Center for Translational Medicine and Immune
Diagnostics Laboratory, Medical Department I, Marien Hospital Herne,
University Hospital of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Hölkeskampring 40,
44625 Herne, Germany
5Medical Department I, Marien Hospital Herne,
University Hospital of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Hölkeskampring 40,
44625 Herne, Germany
6Department of Infectious Diseases, West German Centre
of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Essen, University
Duisburg-Essen, Germany
7Department of Dermatology and Allergy, University
Hospital Schleswig Holstein, Arnold-Heller-Straße 3, 24105 Kiel, Germany
*equal contribution
Word count (main text) : 2501
Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the patients who donated
their blood samples and clinical data for this project. We would like to
acknowledge the excellent technical assistance as well as the expertise
of the immune diagnostic laboratory of the Center for Translational
Medicine at Marien Hospital Herne. N.B. received funding from the
Mercator Foundation, the German Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF) e:KID (01ZX1612A), and BMBF NoChro (FKZ 13GW0338B). MA
received funding from the Arab German Young Academy (AGYA), a project by
the BMBF.