Identification of CD8 T-cell dysfunction associated with symptoms in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID and treatment with a nebulized antioxidant/anti-pathogen agent in a retrospective case series.

Background: Patients with post-acute sequelae of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (PASC, i.e., Long COVID) have a symptom complex highly analogous to many features of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), suggesting they may share some aspects of pathogenesis in these similar disorders. ME/CFS is a complex disease affecting numerous organ systems and biological processes and is often preceded by an infection-like episode. It is postulated that the chronic manifestations of illness may result from an altered host response to infection or inability to resolve inflammation, as is being reported in Long COVID. The immunopathogenesis of both disorders is still poorly understood. Here, we show data that suggest Long COVID and ME/CFS may be due to an aberrant response to an immunological trigger-like infection, resulting in a dysregulated immune system with CD8 T-cell dysfunction reminiscent of some aspects of T-cell clonal exhaustion, a phenomenon associated with oxidative stress. As there is an urgent need for diagnostic tools and treatment strategies for these two related disabling disorders, here, in a retrospective case series, we have also identified a potential nebulized antioxidant/anti-pathogen treatment that has evidence of a good safety profile. This nebulized agent is comprised of five ingredients previously reported individually to relieve oxidative stress, attenuate NF-κB signaling, and/or to act directly to inhibit pathogens, including viruses. Administration of this treatment by nebulizer results in rapid access of small doses of well-studied antioxidants and agents with anti-pathogen potential to the lungs; components of this nebulized agent are also likely to be distributed systemically, with potential to enter the central nervous system. Methods: and Findings: We conducted an analysis of CD8 T-cell function and severity of symptoms by self-report questionnaires in ME/CFS, Long COVID and healthy controls. We developed a CD8 T-cell functional assay, assessing CD8 T-cell dysfunction by intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) in a group of ME/CFS (n = 12) and Long COVID patients (n = 8), comparing to healthy controls (HC) with similar age and sex (n = 10). Magnet-enriched fresh CD8 T-cells in both patient groups had a significantly diminished capacity to produce both cytokines, IFNγ or TNFα, after PMA stimulation when compared to HC. The symptom severity questionnaire showed similar symptom profiles for the two disorders. Fortuitously, through a retrospective case series, we were able to examine the ICS and questionnaire data of 4 ME/CFS and 4 Long COVID patients in conjunction with their treatment (3-15 months). In parallel with the treatment pursued electively by participants in this retrospective case series, there was an increase in CD8 T-cell IFNγ and TNFα production and a decrease in overall self-reported symptom severity score by 54%. No serious treatment-associated side effects or laboratory anomalies were noted in these patients. Conclusions: Here, in this small study, we present two observations that appear potentially fundamental to the pathogenesis and treatment of Long COVID and ME/CFS. The first is that both disorders appear to be characterized by dysfunctional CD8 T-cells with severe deficiencies in their abilities to produce IFNγ and TNFα. The second is that in a small retrospective Long COVID and ME/CFS case series, this immune dysfunction and patient health improved in parallel with treatment with an immunomodulatory, antioxidant pharmacological treatment with anticipated anti-pathogen activity. This work provides evidence of the potential utility of a biomarker, CD8 T-cell dysfunction, and suggests the potential for benefit from a new nebulized antioxidant/anti-pathogen treatment. These immune biomarker data may help build capacity for improved diagnosis and tracking of treatment outcomes during clinical trials for both Long COVID and ME/CFS while providing clues to new treatment avenues that suggest potential efficacy for both conditions.

Cross-reactivity influences changes in human influenza A virus and Epstein Barr virus specific CD8 memory T cell receptor alpha and beta repertoires between young and old.

Older people have difficulty controlling infection with common viruses such as influenza A virus (IAV), RNA virus which causes recurrent infections due to a high rate of genetic mutation, and Epstein Barr virus (EBV), DNA virus which persists in B cells for life in the 95% of people that become acutely infected. We questioned whether changes in epitope-specific memory CD8 T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires to these two common viruses could occur with increasing age and contribute to waning immunity. We compared CD8 memory TCR alpha and beta repertoires in two HLA-A2+ EBV- and IAV-immune donors, young (Y) and older (O) donors to three immunodominant epitopes known to be cross-reactive, IAV-M158-66 (IAV-M1), EBV-BMLF1280-288 (EBV-BM), and EBV-BRLF1109-117 (EBV-BR). We, therefore, also designed these studies to examine if TCR cross-reactivity could contribute to changes in repertoire with increasing age. TCR high throughput sequencing showed a significant difference in the pattern of TRBV usage between Y and O. However, there were many more differences in AV and AJ usage, between the age groups suggesting that changes in TCRα usage may play a greater role in evolution of the TCR repertoire emphasizing the importance of studying TRAV repertoires. With increasing age there was a preferential retention of TCR for all three epitopes with features in their complementarity-determining region (CDR3) that increased their ease of generation, and their cross-reactive potential. Young and older donors differed in the patterns of AV/AJ and BV/BJ pairings and usage of dominant CDR3 motifs specific to all three epitopes. Both young and older donors had cross-reactive responses between these 3 epitopes, which were unique and differed from the cognate responses having features that suggested they could interact with either ligand. There was an increased tendency for the classic IAV-M1 specific clone BV19-IRSS-JB2.7/AV27-CAGGGSQGNLIF-AJ42 to appear among the cross-reactive clones, suggesting that the dominance of this clone may relate to its cross-reactivity with EBV. These results suggest that although young and older donors retain classic TCR features for each epitope their repertoires are gradually changing with age, maintaining TCRs that are cross-reactive between these two common human viruses, one with recurrent infections and the other a persistent virus which frequently reactivates.

SwarmTCR: a computational approach to predict the specificity of T cell receptors.

BACKGROUND: With more T cell receptor sequence data becoming available, the need for bioinformatics approaches to predict T cell receptor specificity is even more pressing. Here we present SwarmTCR, a method that uses labeled sequence data to predict the specificity of T cell receptors using a nearest-neighbor approach. SwarmTCR works by optimizing the weights of the individual CDR regions to maximize classification performance. RESULTS: We compared the performance of SwarmTCR against another nearest-neighbor method and showed that SwarmTCR performs well both with bulk sequencing data and with single cell data. In addition, we show that the weights returned by SwarmTCR are biologically interpretable. CONCLUSIONS: Computationally predicting the specificity of T cell receptors can be a powerful tool to shed light on the immune response against infectious diseases and cancers, autoimmunity, cancer immunotherapy, and immunopathology. SwarmTCR is distributed freely under the terms of the GPL-3 license. The source code and all sequencing data are available at GitHub ( https://github.com/thecodingdoc/SwarmTCR ).

T cells in the brain enhance neonatal mortality during peripheral LCMV infection.

In adult mice the severity of disease from viral infections is determined by the balance between the efficiency of the immune response and the magnitude of viral load. Here, the impact of this dynamic is examined in neonates. Newborns are highly susceptible to infections due to poor innate responses, lower numbers of T cells and Th2-prone immune responses. Eighty-percent of 7-day old mice, immunologically equivalent to human neonates, succumbed to extremely low doses (5 PFU) of the essentially non-lethal lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV-Armstrong) given intraperitoneally. This increased lethality was determined to be dependent upon poor early viral control, as well as, T cells and perforin as assessed in knockout mice. By day 3, these neonatal mice had 400-fold higher viral loads as compared to adults receiving a 10,000-fold (5X104 PFU) higher dose of LCMV. The high viral load in combination with the subsequent immunological defect of partial CD8 T cell clonal exhaustion in the periphery led to viral entry and replication in the brain. Within the brain, CD8 T cells were protected from exhaustion, and thus were able to mediate lethal immunopathology. To further delineate the role of early viral control, neonatal mice were infected with Pichinde virus, a less virulent arenavirus, or LCMV was given to pups of LCMV-immune mothers. In both cases, peak viral load was at least 29-fold lower, leading to functional CD8 T cell responses and 100% survival.

Epstein-Barr Virus Epitope-Major Histocompatibility Complex Interaction Combined with Convergent Recombination Drives Selection of Diverse T Cell Receptor α and ß Repertoires.

Recognition modes of individual T cell receptors (TCRs) are well studied, but factors driving the selection of TCR repertoires from primary through persistent human virus infections are less well understood. Using deep sequencing, we demonstrate a high degree of diversity of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific clonotypes in acute infectious mononucleosis (AIM). Only 9% of unique clonotypes detected in AIM persisted into convalescence; the majority (91%) of unique clonotypes detected in AIM were not detected in convalescence and were seeming replaced by equally diverse "de novo" clonotypes. The persistent clonotypes had a greater probability of being generated than nonpersistent clonotypes due to convergence recombination of multiple nucleotide sequences to encode the same amino acid sequence, as well as the use of shorter complementarity-determining regions 3 (CDR3s) with fewer nucleotide additions (i.e., sequences closer to germ line). Moreover, the two most immunodominant HLA-A2-restricted EBV epitopes, BRLF1109 and BMLF1280, show highly distinct antigen-specific public (i.e., shared between individuals) features. In fact, TCRα CDR3 motifs played a dominant role, while TCRß played a minimal role, in the selection of TCR repertoire to an immunodominant EBV epitope, BRLF1. This contrasts with the majority of previously reported repertoires, which appear to be selected either on TCRß CDR3 interactions with peptide/major histocompatibility complex (MHC) or in combination with TCRα CDR3. Understanding of how TCR-peptide-MHC complex interactions drive repertoire selection can be used to develop optimal strategies for vaccine design or generation of appropriate adoptive immunotherapies for viral infections in transplant settings or for cancer.IMPORTANCE Several lines of evidence suggest that TCRα and TCRß repertoires play a role in disease outcomes and treatment strategies during viral infections in transplant patients and in cancer and autoimmune disease therapy. Our data suggest that it is essential that we understand the basic principles of how to drive optimum repertoires for both TCR chains, α and ß. We address this important issue by characterizing the CD8 TCR repertoire to a common persistent human viral infection (EBV), which is controlled by appropriate CD8 T cell responses. The ultimate goal would be to determine if the individuals who are infected asymptomatically develop a different TCR repertoire than those that develop the immunopathology of AIM. Here, we begin by doing an in-depth characterization of both CD8 T cell TCRα and TCRß repertoires to two immunodominant EBV epitopes over the course of AIM, identifying potential factors that may be driving their selection.

CDR3α drives selection of the immunodominant Epstein Barr virus (EBV) BRLF1-specific CD8 T cell receptor repertoire in primary infection.

The T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire is an essential component of the CD8 T-cell immune response. Here, we seek to investigate factors that drive selection of TCR repertoires specific to the HLA-A2-restricted immunodominant epitope BRLF1109-117 (YVLDHLIVV) over the course of primary Epstein Barr virus (EBV) infection. Using single-cell paired TCRαß sequencing of tetramer sorted CD8 T cells ex vivo, we show at the clonal level that recognition of the HLA-A2-restricted BRLF1 (YVL-BR, BRLF-1109) epitope is mainly driven by the TCRα chain. For the first time, we identify a CDR3α (complementarity determining region 3 α) motif, KDTDKL, resulting from an obligate AV8.1-AJ34 pairing that was shared by all four individuals studied. This observation coupled with the fact that this public AV8.1-KDTDKL-AJ34 TCR pairs with multiple different TCRß chains within the same donor (median 4; range: 1-9), suggests that there are some unique structural features of the interaction between the YVL-BR/MHC and the AV8.1-KDTDKL-AJ34 TCR that leads to this high level of selection. Newly developed TCR motif algorithms identified a lysine at position 1 of the CDR3α motif that is highly conserved and likely important for antigen recognition. Crystal structure analysis of the YVL-BR/HLA-A2 complex revealed that the MHC-bound peptide bulges at position 4, exposing a negatively charged aspartic acid that may interact with the positively charged lysine of CDR3α. TCR cloning and site-directed mutagenesis of the CDR3α lysine ablated YVL-BR-tetramer staining and substantially reduced CD69 upregulation on TCR mutant-transduced cells following antigen-specific stimulation. Reduced activation of T cells expressing this CDR3 motif was also observed following exposure to mutated (D4A) peptide. In summary, we show that a highly public TCR repertoire to an immunodominant epitope of a common human virus is almost completely selected on the basis of CDR3α and provide a likely structural basis for the selection. These studies emphasize the importance of examining TCRα, as well as TCRß, in understanding the CD8 T cell receptor repertoire.

Severity of Acute Infectious Mononucleosis Correlates with Cross-Reactive Influenza CD8 T-Cell Receptor Repertoires.

Fifty years after the discovery of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), it remains unclear how primary infection with this virus leads to massive CD8 T-cell expansion and acute infectious mononucleosis (AIM) in young adults. AIM can vary greatly in severity, from a mild transient influenza-like illness to a prolonged severe syndrome. We questioned whether expansion of a unique HLA-A2.01-restricted, cross-reactive CD8 T-cell response between influenza virus A-M158 (IAV-M1) and EBV BMLF1280 (EBV-BM) could modulate the immune response to EBV and play a role in determining the severity of AIM in 32 college students. Only ex vivo total IAV-M1 and IAV-M1+EBV-BM cross-reactive tetramer+ frequencies directly correlated with AIM severity and were predictive of severe disease. Expansion of specific cross-reactive memory IAV-M1 T-cell receptor (TCR) Vß repertoires correlated with levels of disease severity. There were unique profiles of qualitatively different functional responses in the cross-reactive and EBV-specific CD8 T-cell responses in each of the three groups studied, severe-AIM patients, mild-AIM patients, and seropositive persistently EBV-infected healthy donors, that may result from differences in TCR repertoire use. IAV-M1 tetramer+ cells were functionally cross-reactive in short-term cultures, were associated with the highest disease severity in AIM, and displayed enhanced production of gamma interferon, a cytokine that greatly amplifies immune responses, thus frequently contributing to induction of immunopathology. Altogether, these data link heterologous immunity via CD8 T-cell cross-reactivity to CD8 T-cell repertoire selection, function, and resultant disease severity in a common and important human infection. In particular, it highlights for the first time a direct link between the TCR repertoire with pathogenesis and the diversity of outcomes upon pathogen encounter.IMPORTANCE The pathogenic impact of immune responses that by chance cross-react to unrelated viruses has not been established in human infections. Here, we demonstrate that the severity of acute infectious mononucleosis (AIM), an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-induced disease prevalent in young adults but not children, is associated with increased frequencies of T cells cross-reactive to EBV and the commonly acquired influenza A virus (IAV). The T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire and functions of these cross-reactive T cells differed between mild- and severe-AIM patients, most likely because these two groups of patients had selected different memory TCR repertoires in response to IAV infections encountered earlier. This heterologous immunity may explain variability in disease outcome and why young adults with more-developed IAV-specific memory T-cell pools have more-severe disease than children, who have less-developed memory pools. This study provides a new framework for understanding the role of heterologous immunity in human health and disease and highlights an important developing field examining the role of T-cell repertoires in the mediation of immunopathology.

Interpreting T-Cell Cross-reactivity through Structure: Implications for TCR-Based Cancer Immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy has become one of the most promising avenues for cancer treatment, making use of the patient's own immune system to eliminate cancer cells. Clinical trials with T-cell-based immunotherapies have shown dramatic tumor regressions, being effective in multiple cancer types and for many different patients. Unfortunately, this progress was tempered by reports of serious (even fatal) side effects. Such therapies rely on the use of cytotoxic T-cell lymphocytes, an essential part of the adaptive immune system. Cytotoxic T-cells are regularly involved in surveillance and are capable of both eliminating diseased cells and generating protective immunological memory. The specificity of a given T-cell is determined through the structural interaction between the T-cell receptor (TCR) and a peptide-loaded major histocompatibility complex (MHC); i.e., an intracellular peptide-ligand displayed at the cell surface by an MHC molecule. However, a given TCR can recognize different peptide-MHC (pMHC) complexes, which can sometimes trigger an unwanted response that is referred to as T-cell cross-reactivity. This has become a major safety issue in TCR-based immunotherapies, following reports of melanoma-specific T-cells causing cytotoxic damage to healthy tissues (e.g., heart and nervous system). T-cell cross-reactivity has been extensively studied in the context of viral immunology and tissue transplantation. Growing evidence suggests that it is largely driven by structural similarities of seemingly unrelated pMHC complexes. Here, we review recent reports about the existence of pMHC "hot-spots" for cross-reactivity and propose the existence of a TCR interaction profile (i.e., a refinement of a more general TCR footprint in which some amino acid residues are more important than others in triggering T-cell cross-reactivity). We also make use of available structural data and pMHC models to interpret previously reported cross-reactivity patterns among virus-derived peptides. Our study provides further evidence that structural analyses of pMHC complexes can be used to assess the intrinsic likelihood of cross-reactivity among peptide-targets. Furthermore, we hypothesize that some apparent inconsistencies in reported cross-reactivities, such as a preferential directionality, might also be driven by particular structural features of the targeted pMHC complex. Finally, we explain why TCR-based immunotherapy provides a special context in which meaningful T-cell cross-reactivity predictions can be made.

Transient expression of ZBTB32 in anti-viral CD8+ T cells limits the magnitude of the effector response and the generation of memory.

Virus infections induce CD8+ T cell responses comprised of a large population of terminal effector cells and a smaller subset of long-lived memory cells. The transcription factors regulating the relative expansion versus the long-term survival potential of anti-viral CD8+ T cells are not completely understood. We identified ZBTB32 as a transcription factor that is transiently expressed in effector CD8+ T cells. After acute virus infection, CD8+ T cells deficient in ZBTB32 showed enhanced virus-specific CD8+ T cell responses, and generated increased numbers of virus-specific memory cells; in contrast, persistent expression of ZBTB32 suppressed memory cell formation. The dysregulation of CD8+ T cell responses in the absence of ZBTB32 was catastrophic, as Zbtb32-/- mice succumbed to a systemic viral infection and showed evidence of severe lung pathology. We found that ZBTB32 and Blimp-1 were co-expressed following CD8+ T cell activation, bound to each other, and cooperatively regulated Blimp-1 target genes Eomes and Cd27. These findings demonstrate that ZBTB32 is a key transcription factor in CD8+ effector T cells that is required for the balanced regulation of effector versus memory responses to infection.

Broad TCR repertoire and diverse structural solutions for recognition of an immunodominant CD8+ T cell epitope.

A keystone of antiviral immunity is CD8+ T cell recognition of viral peptides bound to MHC-I proteins. The recognition modes of individual T cell receptors (TCRs) have been studied in some detail, but the role of TCR variation in providing a robust response to viral antigens is unclear. The influenza M1 epitope is an immunodominant target of CD8+ T cells that help to control influenza in HLA-A2+ individuals. Here we show that CD8+ T cells use many distinct TCRs to recognize HLA-A2-M1, which enables the use of different structural solutions to the problem of specifically recognizing a relatively featureless peptide antigen. The vast majority of responding TCRs target a small cleft between HLA-A2 and the bound M1 peptide. These broad repertoires lead to plasticity in antigen recognition and protection against T cell clonal loss and viral escape.

Heterologous Immunity and Persistent Murine Cytomegalovirus Infection.

One's history of infections can affect the immune response to unrelated pathogens and influence disease outcome through the process of heterologous immunity. This can occur after acute viral infections, such as infections with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) and vaccinia virus, where the pathogens are cleared, but it becomes a more complex issue in the context of persistent infections. In this study, murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) was used as a persistent infection model to study heterologous immunity with LCMV. If mice were previously immune to LCMV and then infected with MCMV (LCMV+MCMV), they had more severe immunopathology, enhanced viral burden in multiple organs, and suppression of MCMV-specific T cell memory inflation. MCMV infection initially reduced the numbers of LCMV-specific memory T cells, but continued MCMV persistence did not further erode memory T cells specific to LCMV. When MCMV infection was given first (MCMV+LCMV), the magnitude of the acute T cell response to LCMV declined with age though this age-dependent decline was not dependent on MCMV. However, some of these MCMV persistently infected mice with acute LCMV infection (7 of 36) developed a robust immunodominant CD8 T cell response apparently cross-reactive between a newly defined putative MCMV epitope sequence, M57727-734, and the normally subdominant LCMV epitope L2062-2069, indicating a profound private specificity effect in heterologous immunity between these two viruses. These results further illustrate how a history of an acute or a persistent virus infection can substantially influence the immune responses and immune pathology associated with acute or persistent infections with an unrelated virus. IMPORTANCE: This study extends our understanding of heterologous immunity in the context of persistent viral infection. The phenomenon has been studied mostly with viruses such as LCMV that are cleared, but the situation can be more complex with a persistent virus such as MCMV. We found that the history of LCMV infection intensifies MCMV immunopathology, enhances MCMV burden in multiple organs, and suppresses MCMV-specific T cell memory inflation. In the reverse infection sequence, we show that some of the long-term MCMV-immune mice mount a robust CD8 T cell cross-reactive response between a newly defined putative MCMV epitope sequence and a normally subdominant LCMV epitope. These results further illustrate how a history of infection can substantially influence the immune responses and immune pathology associated with infections with an unrelated virus.

Increased Immune Response Variability during Simultaneous Viral Coinfection Leads to Unpredictability in CD8 T Cell Immunity and Pathogenesis.

UNLABELLED: T cell memory is usually studied in the context of infection with a single pathogen in naive mice, but how memory develops during a coinfection with two pathogens, as frequently occurs in nature or after vaccination, is far less studied. Here, we questioned how the competition between immune responses to two viruses in the same naive host would influence the development of CD8 T cell memory and subsequent disease outcome upon challenge. Using two different models of coinfection, including the well-studied lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV) and Pichinde (PICV) viruses, several differences were observed within the CD8 T cell responses to either virus. Compared to single-virus infection, coinfection resulted in substantial variation among mice in the size of epitope-specific T cell responses to each virus. Some mice had an overall reduced number of virus-specific cells to either one of the viruses, and other mice developed an immunodominant response to a normally subdominant, cross-reactive epitope (nucleoprotein residues 205 to 212, or NP205). These changes led to decreased protective immunity and enhanced pathology in some mice upon challenge with either of the original coinfecting viruses. In mice with PICV-dominant responses, during a high-dose challenge with LCMV clone 13, increased immunopathology was associated with a reduced number of LCMV-specific effector memory CD8 T cells. In mice with dominant cross-reactive memory responses, during challenge with PICV increased immunopathology was directly associated with these cross-reactive NP205-specific CD8 memory cells. In conclusion, the inherent competition between two simultaneous immune responses results in significant alterations in T cell immunity and subsequent disease outcome upon reexposure. IMPORTANCE: Combination vaccines and simultaneous administration of vaccines are necessary to accommodate required immunizations and maintain vaccination rates. Antibody responses generally correlate with protection and vaccine efficacy. However, live attenuated vaccines also induce strong CD8 T cell responses, and the impact of these cells on subsequent immunity, whether beneficial or detrimental, has seldom been studied, in part due to the lack of known T cell epitopes to vaccine viruses. We questioned if the inherent increased competition and stochasticity between two immune responses during a simultaneous coinfection would significantly alter CD8 T cell memory in a mouse model where CD8 T cell epitopes are clearly defined. We show that some of the coinfected mice have sufficiently altered memory T cell responses that they have decreased protection and enhanced immunopathology when reexposed to one of the two viruses. These data suggest that a better understanding of human T cell responses to vaccines is needed to optimize immunization strategies.

Evaluation of non-reciprocal heterologous immunity between unrelated viruses.

Heterologous immunity refers to the phenomenon whereby a history of an immune response against one pathogen can provide a level of immunity to a second unrelated pathogen. Previous investigations have shown that heterologous immunity is not necessarily reciprocal, such as in the case of vaccinia virus (VACV). Replication of VACV is reduced in mice immune to a variety of pathogens, while VACV fails to induce immunity to several of the same pathogens, including lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). Here we examine the lack of reciprocity of heterologous immunity between VACV and LCMV and find that they induce qualitatively different memory CD8 T cells. However, depending on the repertoire of an individual host, VACV can provide protection against LCMV simply by experimentally amplifying the quantity of T cells cross-reactive with the two viruses. Thus, one cause for lack of reciprocity is differences in the frequencies of cross-reactive T cells in immune hosts.

Narrowing of human influenza A virus-specific T cell receptor α and ß repertoires with increasing age.

UNLABELLED: Alterations in memory CD8 T cell responses may contribute to the high morbidity and mortality caused by seasonal influenza A virus (IAV) infections in older individuals. We questioned whether memory CD8 responses to this nonpersistent virus, to which recurrent exposure with new strains is common, changed over time with increasing age. Here, we show a direct correlation between increasing age and narrowing of the HLA-A2-restricted IAV Vα and Vß T cell repertoires specific to M1 residues 58 to 66 (M158-66), which simultaneously lead to oligoclonal expansions, including the usage of a single identical VA12-JA29 clonotype in all eight older donors. The Vα repertoire of older individuals also had longer CDR3 regions with increased usage of G/A runs, whose molecular flexibility may enhance T cell receptor (TCR) promiscuity. Collectively, these results suggest that CD8 memory T cell responses to nonpersistent viruses like IAV in humans are dynamic, and with aging there is a reduced diversity but a preferential retention of T cell repertoires with features of enhanced cross-reactivity. IMPORTANCE: With increasing age, the immune system undergoes drastic changes, and older individuals have declined resistance to infections. Vaccinations become less effective, and infection with influenza A virus in older individuals is associated with higher morbidity and mortality. Here, we questioned whether T cell responses directed against the highly conserved HLA-A2-restricted M158-66 peptide of IAV evolves with increasing age. Specifically, we postulated that CD8 T cell repertoires narrow with recurrent exposure and may thus be less efficient in response to new infections with new strains of IAV. Detailed analyses of the VA and VB TCR repertoires simultaneously showed a direct correlation between increasing age and narrowing of the TCR repertoire. Features of the TCRs indicated potentially enhanced cross-reactivity in all older donors. In summary, T cell repertoire analysis in older individuals may be useful as one of the predictors of protection after vaccination.

Vaccination and heterologous immunity: educating the immune system.

This review discusses three inter-related topics: (1) the immaturity of the neonatal and infant immune response; (2) heterologous immunity, where prior infection history with unrelated pathogens alters disease outcome resulting in either enhanced protective immunity or increased immunopathology to new infections, and (3) epidemiological human vaccine studies that demonstrate vaccines can have beneficial or detrimental effects on subsequent unrelated infections. The results from the epidemiological and heterologous immunity studies suggest that the immune system has tremendous plasticity and that each new infection or vaccine that an individual is exposed to during a lifetime will potentially alter the dynamics of their immune system. It also suggests that each new infection or vaccine that an infant receives is not only perturbing the immune system but is educating the immune system and laying down the foundation for all subsequent responses. This leads to the question, is there an optimum way to educate the immune system? Should this be taken into consideration in our vaccination protocols?

Regulatory T cells resist virus infection-induced apoptosis.

UNLABELLED: Regulatory T (Treg) cells are important in the maintenance of self-tolerance, and the depletion of Treg cells correlates with autoimmune development. It has been shown that type I interferon (IFN) responses induced early in the infection of mice can drive memory (CD44hi) CD8 and CD4 T cells into apoptosis, and we questioned here whether the apoptosis of CD44-expressing Treg cells might be involved in the infection-associated autoimmune development. Instead, we found that Treg cells were much more resistant to apoptosis than CD44hi CD8 and CD4 T cells at days 2 to 3 after lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infection, when type I IFN levels are high. The infection caused a downregulation of the interleukin-7 (IL-7) receptor, needed for survival of conventional T cells, while increasing on Treg cells the expression of the high-affinity IL-2 receptor, needed for STAT5-dependent survival of Treg cells. The stably maintained Treg cells early during infection may explain the relatively low incidence of autoimmune manifestations among infected patients. IMPORTANCE: Autoimmune diseases are controlled in part by regulatory T cells (Treg) and are thought to sometimes be initiated by viral infections. We tested the hypothesis that Treg may die off at early stages of infection, when virus-induced factors kill other lymphocyte types. Instead, we found that Treg resisted this cell death, perhaps reducing the tendency of viral infections to cause immune dysfunction and induce autoimmunity.