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The efficacies of many new T cell vaccines rely on generating large populations of long-lived pathogen-specific effector memory CD8 T cells. However, it is now increasingly recognized that prior infection history impacts on the host immune response. Additionally, the order in which these infections are acquired could have a major effect. Exploiting the ability to generate large sustained effector memory (i.e. inflationary) T cell populations from murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) and human Adenovirus-subtype (AdHu5) 5-beta-galactosidase (Ad-lacZ) vector, the impact of new infections on pre-existing memory and the capacity of the host's memory compartment to accommodate multiple inflationary populations from unrelated pathogens was investigated in a murine model. Simultaneous and sequential infections, first with MCMV followed by Ad-lacZ, generated inflationary populations towards both viruses with similar kinetics and magnitude to mono-infected groups. However, in Ad-lacZ immune mice, subsequent acute MCMV infection led to a rapid decline of the pre-existing Ad-LacZ-specific inflating population, associated with bystander activation of Fas-dependent apoptotic pathways. However, responses were maintained long-term and boosting with Ad-lacZ led to rapid re-expansion of the inflating population. These data indicate firstly that multiple specificities of inflating memory cells can be acquired at different times and stably co-exist. Some acute infections may also deplete pre-existing memory populations, thus revealing the importance of the order of infection acquisition. Importantly, immunization with an AdHu5 vector did not alter the size of the pre-existing memory. These phenomena are relevant to the development of adenoviral vectors as novel vaccination strategies for diverse infections and cancers. (241 words).

Original publication

DOI

10.1371/journal.ppat.1006782

Type

Journal article

Journal

PLoS Pathog

Publication Date

12/2017

Volume

13

Keywords

Adenovirus Infections, Human, Adenoviruses, Human, Animals, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Coinfection, Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte, Herpesviridae Infections, Host-Pathogen Interactions, Humans, Immunologic Memory, Lac Operon, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Knockout, Models, Immunological, Muromegalovirus, Receptors, Interleukin-18, Viral Vaccines