Local memory CD4 T cell niches in respiratory viral infection

• Published in: The Journal of experimental medicine Vol. 218; no. 8
• Main Authors: Pruner, Kurt B., Pepper, Marion
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Rockefeller University Press 02.08.2021
• Series: Immune Memory Focus
• Subjects: Animals; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Humans; Immune Memory Focus; Immunologic Memory; Infectious disease and host defense; Mucosal immunology; Respiratory Tract Infections - immunology; Respiratory Tract Infections - virology; Review; SARS-CoV-2 - physiology; Species Specificity; Vaccination
• ISSN: 0022-1007; 1540-9538; 1540-9538
• DOI: 10.1084/jem.20201733

Respiratory viral infections present a major threat to global health and prosperity. Over the past century, several have developed into crippling pandemics, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although the generation of neutralizing serum antibodies in response to natural immunity and vaccination are considered to be hallmarks of viral immune protection, antibodies from long-lived plasma cells are subject to immune escape from heterologous clades of zoonotic, recombined, or mutated viruses. Local immunity in the lung can be generated through resident memory immune subsets that rapidly respond to secondary infection and protect from heterologous infection. Although many immune cells are required to achieve the phenomenon of resident memory, herein we highlight the pleiotropic functions of CD4 tissue resident memory T cells in the lung and discuss the implications of resident memory for vaccine design.