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    Memory Killer T cells are primed in the Spleen during Influenza infection

    September 16, 2021, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    Illustration of a T lymphocyte, or T cell, white blood cells targeting SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus particles. T lymphocytes are components of the body's immune system. Helper T cells stimulate other immune cells to act against a pathogen, whereas killer T cells target and destroy infected cells themselves. SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and causes a mild respiratory illness (covid-19) that can develop into pneumonia and be fatal in some cases.
    This finding upends the long-held paradigm that priming during lung infections takes place only in the draining lymph nodes, and it will be key to developing more efficient vaccinations and therapies for respiratory challenges.

    CD8+ T cells – known as “killer” T cells – are the assassins of the immune system. Once they are primed, they seek out and destroy other cells that are infected with virus or cells that are cancerous.

    Priming involves dendritic cells – sentinels of the immune system. In an influenza infection in the lungs, for example, lung-migratory dendritic cells capture a piece of the viral antigen, and then migrate out of the lung to the place where naïve T cells reside, to present that antigen to the CD8+ T cells. This primes the T cells to know which cells to attack.

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