Department of Medicine Huddinge, Center for Infectious Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 14152, Sweden.
Department of Infectious Diseases/Venhälsan, Södersjukhuset, Stockholm 11861, Sweden.
Cell Host Microbe. 2023 Jun 14;31(6):928-936.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2023.04.015. Epub 2023 Apr 25.
Mpox represents a persistent health concern with varying disease severity. Reinfections with mpox virus (MPXV) are rare, possibly indicating effective memory responses to MPXV or related poxviruses, notably vaccinia virus (VACV) from smallpox vaccination. We assessed cross-reactive and virus-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells in healthy individuals and mpox convalescent donors. Cross-reactive T cells were most frequently observed in healthy donors over 45 years. Notably, long-lived memory CD8 T cells targeting conserved VACV/MPXV epitopes were identified in older individuals more than four decades after VACV exposure and exhibited stem-like characteristics, defined by T cell factor-1 (TCF-1) expression. In mpox convalescent donors, MPXV-reactive CD4 and CD8 T cells were more prevalent than in controls, demonstrating enhanced functionality and skewing toward effector phenotypes, which correlated with milder disease. Collectively, we report robust effector memory MPXV-specific T cell responses in mild mpox and long-lived TCF-1 VACV/MPXV-specific CD8 T cells decades after smallpox vaccination.
猴痘病毒（MPXV）引起的感染具有不同的严重程度，一直是一个健康隐患。猴痘病毒的再感染较为罕见，这可能表明针对 MPXV 或相关痘病毒（尤其是来自天花疫苗的牛痘病毒）存在有效的记忆应答。我们评估了健康个体和猴痘恢复期供体中的交叉反应性和病毒特异性 CD4 和 CD8 T 细胞。在超过 45 岁的健康供体中最常观察到交叉反应性 T 细胞。值得注意的是，在 VACV 暴露 40 多年后，在年龄较大的个体中发现了针对牛痘病毒/猴痘病毒保守表位的长寿记忆 CD8 T 细胞，这些细胞具有 T 细胞因子-1（TCF-1）表达定义的干细胞样特征。在猴痘恢复期供体中，MPXV 反应性 CD4 和 CD8 T 细胞比对照更为常见，表现出增强的功能和向效应表型的倾斜，这与疾病的轻微程度相关。总之，我们报告了在轻度猴痘中存在强大的效应记忆性 MPXV 特异性 T 细胞应答，以及在天花疫苗接种后数十年存在长寿的 TCF-1 牛痘病毒/猴痘病毒特异性 CD8 T 细胞。
