Yellow Fever Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Yellow Fever, including details on immunization, vaccines, symptoms, transmission.

Human effector and memory CD8+ T cell responses to smallpox and yellow fever vaccines.

Miller JD, van der Most RG, Akondy RS, Glidewell JT, Albott S, Masopust D, Murali-Krishna K, Mahar PL, Edupuganti S, Lalor S, Germon S, Del Rio C, Mulligan MJ, Staprans SI, Altman JD, Feinberg MB, Ahmed R

Emory Vaccine Center and the Hope Clinic, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.

To explore the human T cell response to acute viral infection, we performed a longitudinal analysis of CD8(+) T cells responding to the live yellow fever virus and smallpox vaccines--two highly successful human vaccines. Our results show that both vaccines generated a brisk primary effector CD8(+) T cell response of substantial magnitude that could be readily quantitated with a simple set of four phenotypic markers. Secondly, the vaccine-induced T cell response was highly specific with minimal bystander effects. Thirdly, virus-specific CD8(+) T cells passed through an obligate effector phase, contracted more than 90% and gradually differentiated into long-lived memory cells. Finally, these memory cells were highly functional and underwent a memory differentiation program distinct from that described for human CD8(+) T cells specific for persistent viruses. These results provide a benchmark for CD8(+) T cell responses induced by two of the most effective vaccines ever developed.

Published 16 May 2008 in Immunity, 28(5): 710-22.
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