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Generation, maintenance and tissue distribution of T cell responses to human cytomegalovirus in lytic and latent infection.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Sedikides, George X 
Okecha, Georgina 

Abstract

Understanding how the T cell memory response directed towards human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) develops and changes over time while the virus persists is important. Whilst HCMV primary infection and periodic reactivation is well controlled by T cell responses in healthy people, when the immune system is compromised such as post-transplantation, during pregnancy, or underdeveloped such as in new-born infants and children, CMV disease can be a significant problem. In older people, HCMV infection is associated with increased risk of mortality and despite overt disease rarely being seen there are increases in HCMV-DNA in urine of older people suggesting that there is a change in the efficacy of the T cell response following lifelong infection. Therefore, understanding whether phenomenon such as "memory inflation" of the immune response is occurring in humans and if this is detrimental to the overall health of individuals would enable the development of appropriate treatment strategies for the future. In this review, we present the evidence available from human studies regarding the development and maintenance of memory CD8 + and CD4 + T cell responses to HCMV. We conclude that there is only limited evidence supportive of "memory inflation" occurring in humans and that future studies need to investigate immune cells from a broad range of human tissue sites to fully understand the nature of HCMV T cell memory responses to lytic and latent infection.

Description

Keywords

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), Inflation, Latency, T cell memory, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Cytomegalovirus, Cytomegalovirus Infections, Humans, Immunity, Cellular, Immunologic Memory, Virus Activation, Virus Latency

Journal Title

Med Microbiol Immunol

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0300-8584
1432-1831

Volume Title

208

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (MR/K021087/1)
Medical Research Council (MR/S00081X/1)