title: Functional signatures of protective antiviral T-cell immunity in human virus infections.
abstract: The most common human viruses have different abilities to establish persistent chronic infection. Virus-specific T-cell responses are critical in the control of virus replication and in the prevention of disease in chronic infection. A large number of phenotypic markers and a series of functions have been used to characterize virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses, and these studies have shown great phenotypic and functional heterogeneity of the T-cell responses against different viruses. The heterogeneity of the T-cell response has been proposed to be specific to each virus. However, over the past 2 years, several studies have provided evidence that the phenotypic and functional heterogeneity of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses is predominantly regulated by the levels of antigen load. The levels of antigen load modulate the phenotypic and functional patterns of the T-cell response within the same virus infection. Furthermore, the functional characterization of virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses has identified signatures of protective antiviral immunity. Polyfunctional, i.e. interleukin-2 and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) secretion and proliferation, and not monofunctional, i.e. IFN-gamma secretion, CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses represent correlates of protective antiviral immunity in chronic virus infections.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of AIDS Immunopathogenesis, Division of Immunology and Allergy, Department of Medicine, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harari
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dutoit
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cellerai
authors.forename: Pierre-Alexandre
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Bart
authors.forename: Renaud A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Du Pasquier
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pantaleo
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology