| First Author | Sariol A | Year | 2022 |
| Journal | J Immunol | Volume | 208 |
| Issue | 8 | Pages | 1989-1997 |
| PubMed ID | 35365567 | Mgi Jnum | J:324704 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7281040 | Doi | 10.4049/jimmunol.2100794 |
| Citation | Sariol A, et al. (2022) Virus-Specific Regulatory T Cells Persist as Memory in a Neurotropic Coronavirus Infection. J Immunol 208(8):1989-1997 |
| abstractText | Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are critical for regulating immunopathogenic responses in a variety of infections, including infection of mice with JHM strain of mouse hepatitis virus (JHMV), a neurotropic coronavirus that causes immune-mediated demyelinating disease. Although virus-specific Tregs are known to mitigate disease in this infection by suppressing pathogenic effector T cell responses of the same specificity, it is unclear whether these virus-specific Tregs form memory populations and persist similar to their conventional T cell counterparts of the same epitope specificity. Using congenically labeled JHMV-specific Tregs, we found that virus-specific Tregs persist long-term after murine infection, through at least 180 d postinfection and stably maintain Foxp3 expression. We additionally demonstrate that these cells are better able to proliferate and inhibit virus-specific T cell responses postinfection than naive Tregs of the same specificity, further suggesting that these cells differentiate into memory Tregs upon encountering cognate Ag. Taken together, these data suggest that virus-specific Tregs are able to persist long-term in the absence of viral Ag as memory Tregs. |
