Acute and chronic infections drive distinct trajectories in human memory CD4+ T cell formation - PubMed
4 hours ago
- #CD4+ T cells
- #immune memory
- #chronic infection
- Acute and chronic infections lead to different developmental paths for human memory CD4+ T cells.
- In acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, various progenitor CD4+ T cell subsets emerge, some of which also appear in chronic infection.
- In chronic HCV infection, stem-like Bcl-2+ CD4+ T cells and T-bet+ effector CD4+ T cells show a progenitor-progeny relationship.
- After therapy-mediated cure of HCV, CD4+ T cells retain a chronic infection signature but form a long-lasting, stable memory pool distinct from that after spontaneous clearance.
- The findings show that CD4+ T cell fates differ based on infection outcomes and reveal shared maintenance principles with exhausted CD8+ T cells during chronic infection.