ASANUMA H, SHARP M, MAINO VC, ARVIN AM; Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Abstr Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1999 Sep 26-29; 39: 427 (abstract no. 1326).
Stanford Univ. Sch. of Med., Palo Alto, CA
BACKGROUND: Virus-specific cell-mediated responses are a critical component of immunity against all of the human herpesviruses. To detect the frequency of virus-specific memory CD4+ cells, we examined intracellular cytokine expression in whole blood by flow cytometry. We compared quantitatively the persistence of memory T cell immunity against varicella zoster virus (VZV), human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and herpes simplex virus (HSV) after natural infection. Next, we evaluated frequencies of VZV specific memory T cell after naturally acquired and vaccine-induced.METHODS: Whole blood samples were obtained for cellular immunity assays from 25 healthy younger adults (18 to 40 year-old) and 10 healthy elderly adults (over 55 year-old). The quantitation of virus-specific memory CD4+ and T cell frequencies by intracellular cytokine (ICC) assay incorporates a brief exposure to viral antigen to induce cytokines such IFNg or TNFalpha, blocking with brefeldin A, permeabilization, monoclonal antibody staining, and enumeration of cytokine positive cells by flow cytometry.RESULTS: The mean CD4+ responder cell frequencies to HCMV were significantly higher than those to VZV and HSV using IFNg to detect antigen specific responses. The responses of CD4+ T cells to VZV antigen were equivalent between naturally immune adults and vaccinated adults. The percentages of CD4+ T responding to VZV antigen among younger adults were significantly higher than among elderly adults.CONCLUSION: HCMV, a beta herpesvirus latent in PBMC, induces higher numbers of antigen-specific memory CD4+ T cells than infection with VZV or HSV, alpha herpesviruses with neuronal latency.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Adult
- Aged
- Antigens, CD4
- Antigens, Viral
- CASP4 protein, human
- CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes
- Caspases
- Chickenpox
- Chickenpox Vaccine
- Communicable Diseases
- Cytokines
- Cytomegalovirus
- Herpesvirus 3, Human
- Humans
- Immunization
- Infection
- Interferon Type II
- Simplexvirus
- T-Lymphocytes
- immunology
Other ID:
UI: 102245679
From Meeting Abstracts