Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has heavily mutated since the beginning of the coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this regard, the so-called variants of concern (VOCs) feature mutations that confer increased transmissibility and evasion of antibody responses. The VOCs have caused significant spikes in COVID-19 cases, raising significant concerns about whether COVID-19 vaccines will protect against current and future variants. In this context, whereas the protection COVID-19 vaccines offer against the acquisition of infection appears compromised, the protection against severe COVID-19 is maintained. From an immunologic standpoint, this is likely underpinned by the maintenance of T-cell responses against VOCs. Therefore, the role of T-cells is essential to understanding the broader adaptive immune response to COVID-19, which has the potential to shape public policies on vaccine protocols and inform future vaccine design. In this review, we survey the literature on the immunology of T-cell responses upon SARS-CoV-2 vaccination with the current FDA-approved and Emergency Use Authorized COVID-19 vaccines.

Background: Nuclear protein of the testis (NUT) carcinoma (NC) is a rare and exceedingly aggressive neoplasm, typically presenting as midline tumors such as mediastinal, thoracic, or sinonasal tumors, but can also be seen in other locations like the kidneys, liver, and pancreas. NC is frequently underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed due to its rarity, nonspecific clinical and histopathological presentation, lack of clinically trialed standard-of-care therapy, and, ultimately, a lack of awareness about the condition. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 45 cases of NC from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Results: The patient pool was predominantly male, with the most common tumor sites being the lungs and bronchus (51.1%), followed by the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses (28.9%).73.3% of patients received systemic therapy, 62.2% received radiotherapy, and only one-quarter of patients underwent surgery. The median survival time was 8 months (95% CI: 4.09–11.91). Systemic therapy (aHR = 0.268, P = 0.009) and radiotherapy (aHR = 0.335, P = 0.02) were the only independent prognostic factors in this cohort. Conclusion: Our study reiterates the rarity of NC in the United States. We also reveal that when faced with the rare NC, systemic therapy and radiotherapy have been found to relatively prolong NC patient survival. Future research is needed to further guide NC treatment and improve the poor survival associated with the diagnosis.