| First Author | Pais Ferreira D | Year | 2020 |
| Journal | Immunity | Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 985-1000.e11 |
| PubMed ID | 33128876 | Mgi Jnum | J:305277 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6705849 | Doi | 10.1016/j.immuni.2020.09.005 |
| Citation | Pais Ferreira D, et al. (2020) Central memory CD8(+) T cells derive from stem-like Tcf7(hi) effector cells in the absence of cytotoxic differentiation. Immunity 53(5):985-1000.e11 |
| abstractText | Central memory CD8(+) T cells (Tcm) control systemic secondary infections and can protect from chronic infection and cancer as a result of their stem-cell-like capacity to expand, differentiate, and self-renew. Central memory is generally thought to emerge following pathogen clearance and to form based on the de-differentiation of cytolytic effector cells. Here, we uncovered rare effector-phase CD8(+) T cells expressing high amounts of the transcription factor Tcf7 (Tcf1) that showed no evidence of prior cytolytic differentiation and that displayed key hallmarks of Tcm cells. These effector-phase Tcf7(hi) cells quantitatively yielded Tcm cells based on lineage tracing. Mechanistically, Tcf1 counteracted the differentiation of Tcf7(hi) cells and sustained the expression of conserved adult stem-cell genes that were critical for CD8(+) T cell stemness. The discovery of stem-cell-like CD8(+) T cells during the effector response to acute infection provides an opportunity to optimize Tcm cell formation by vaccination. |
