A novel sensitive approach for frequency analysis of measles virus-specific memory T-lymphocytes in healthy adults with a childhood history of natural measles.
Measles virus (MV), a single-stranded negative-sense RNA virus, is an important pathogen causing almost 1 million deaths annually. Acute MV infection induces immunity against disease throughout life. The immunological factors which are responsible for protection against measles are still poorly understood. However, T-cell-mediated immune responses seem to play a central role. The emergence of new single-cell methods for quantification of antigen-specific T-cells directly ex vivo has prompted us to measure frequencies of MV-specific memory T-cells. As an indicator for T-cell activation IFN-gamma production was measured. PBMC were analysed by intracellular staining and ELISPOT assay after stimulation with MV-infected autologous B-lymphoblastoid cell lines or dendritic cells. T-cell responses were exclusively seen with PBMC from MV-seropositive healthy adults with a history of natural measles in childhood. The median frequency of MV-specific T-cells was 0.35% for CD3(+)CD4(+) and 0.24% for the CD3(+)CD8(+) T-cell subset. These frequencies are comparable with T-cell numbers reported by other investigators for persistent virus infections such as Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus or human immunodeficiency virus. Hence, this study illustrates that MV-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cells are readily detectable long after the acute infection, and thus are probably contributing to long-term immunity. Furthermore, this new approach allows efficient analysis of T-cell responses from small samples of blood and could therefore be a useful tool to further elucidate the role of cell-mediated immunity in measles as well as in other viral infections.
Nanan
R
R
Children's Hospital, University of Würzburg and Department of Dermatology, Josef-Schneider-Str. 2, D-97080 Würzburg, Germany. nanan@mail.uni-wuerzberg.de Würzburg, Germany.
Rauch
A
A
Kämpgen
E
E
Niewiesk
S
S
Kreth
H W
HW
D000328:Adult; D000938:Antigen-Presenting Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D002460:Cell Line; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D008457:Measles / Q000276:immunology*; D008459:Measles virus / Q000276:immunology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*
D007371:Interferon-gamma