Detection of Polyfunctional T Cells in Children Vaccinated with Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine via the Flow Cytometry Technique.

ABSTRACT

T cell-mediated immunity plays an important role in controlling flavivirus infection, either after vaccination or after natural infection. The "quality" of a T cell needs to be assessed by function, and higher function is associated with more powerful immune protection. T cells that can simultaneously produce two or more cytokines or chemokines at the single-cell level are called polyfunctional T cells (TPFs), which mediate immune responses through a variety of molecular mechanisms to express degranulation markers (CD107a) and secrete interferon (IFN)-γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-2, or macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α. There is increasing evidence that TPFs are closely related to the maintenance of long-term immune memory and protection and that their increased proportion is an important marker of protective immunity and is important in the effective control of viral infection and reactivation. This evaluation applies not only to specific immune responses but also to the assessment of cross-reactive immune responses. Here, taking the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) as an example, the detection method and flow cytometry color scheme of JEV-specific TPFs produced by peripheral blood mononuclear cells of children vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis were tested to provide a reference for similar studies.