Oral Presentation Australasian Society for Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting 2014

Plasmodium berghei ANKA sporozoite infection induces the formation of liver-associated CD8 T cells that resemble tissue resident memory cells (#110)

Daniel Fernandez Ruiz 1 , Joel Ma 1 , Lei Shong Lau 1 , Vanessa Mollard 2 , Angelika Sturm 2 , Anton Cozijnsen 2 , Yi-Hsuan Lin 1 , Geoffrey I McFadden 2 , Francis R Carbone 1 , Brendan S Crabb 3 , William R Heath 1
  1. Peter Doherty Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia
  2. The School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic, Australia
  3. Macfarlane Burnet Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Vic, Australia

T cell memory allows for the rapid generation of effective immune responses to previously encountered pathogens. Although most memory T cells recirculate through the body, a recently discovered subset, the tissue resident memory T cells (TRM), remains in the affected tissue after infection is cleared. By staying in the area most likely targeted by the pathogen in subsequent reinfections, TRM have the potential to elicit faster, more focused, responses than recirculating memory T cell subsets. We have found that following vaccination with irradiated Plasmodium berghei ANKA sporozoites, a population of memory T cells forms in the liver that closely resembles TRM described in other tissues such as the skin and the lungs. Microarray analysis of these liver-associated memory T cells (TLAM) revealed a similar gene expression profile to TRM. TLAM are long lived and can be found in significant numbers more than 100 days after infection. Strategies to boost numbers of TLAM might be a more effective way to control liver-stage malaria than traditional vaccination strategies focused on generating circulating memory T cells.