Cush Stephanie S, Flaño Emilio
Center for Vaccines and Immunity, Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH 43205, USA.
J Immunol. 2009 Apr 1;182(7):3995-4004. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.0803625.
Ag persistence during high-titer chronic viral infections induces CD8 T cell dysfunction and lack of Ag-independent CD8 T cell memory formation. However, we have a poor understanding of the generation and maintenance of CD8 T cell memory during asymptomatic persistent viral infections, particularly gamma-herpesvirus infections. In this study, we demonstrate that the continuous presence of cognate Ag in the host is not required for the maintenance of CD8 T cell memory during a persistent gamma-herpesvirus infection. Importantly, the Ag-independent CD8 T cell memory that is maintained during gamma-herpesvirus persistence has the capacity to survive long-term under homeostatic conditions and to mount a protective recall response to a secondary encounter with the pathogen. These data highlight the ability of the immune system to maintain a population of protective memory CD8 T cells with capacity for long-term Ag-independent survival in the presence of systemic virus persistence.
在高滴度慢性病毒感染期间抗原持续存在会导致CD8 T细胞功能障碍以及缺乏不依赖抗原的CD8 T细胞记忆形成。然而，我们对无症状持续性病毒感染（尤其是γ-疱疹病毒感染）期间CD8 T细胞记忆的产生和维持了解甚少。在本研究中，我们证明在持续性γ-疱疹病毒感染期间，维持CD8 T细胞记忆并不需要宿主中同源抗原的持续存在。重要的是，在γ-疱疹病毒持续感染期间维持的不依赖抗原的CD8 T细胞记忆有能力在稳态条件下长期存活，并在再次接触病原体时引发保护性回忆反应。这些数据突出了免疫系统在全身性病毒持续存在的情况下维持一群具有长期不依赖抗原存活能力的保护性记忆CD8 T细胞的能力。
