title: Private aspects of heterologous immunity.
abstract: Clinical manifestations of viral infections are highly variable, both in type and severity, among individual patients. Differences in host genetics and in dose and route of infection contribute to this variability but do not fully explain it. New studies now show that each subject's history of past infections individualizes the memory T cell pool. Private T cell receptor specificities of these preexisting memory T cell populations influence both disease severity and outcome of subsequent, unrelated virus infections.
authors.affiliation: Liver Diseases Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Rehermann@nih.gov
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rehermann
authors.forename: Eui-Cheol
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Shin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003429:Cross Reactions / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology