Tracking epitope-specific antiviral CD4+ T cell responses to a live attenuated vaccine reveals ongoing functional responses.
Jones L., Malavige G., Jeffery K., Kemp E., Breuer J., Klenerman P., Ogg GS.
There are few studies that have examined the frequencies of epitope-specific CD4(+) T cells following the use of a highly effective vaccine, yet such data would potentially be of value for the development of novel vaccination strategies. In this study we tracked human epitope-specific CD4(+) T cell responses over time after immunisation with a live attenuated varicella zoster virus vaccine by MHC Class II tetrameric complexes and functional assays. We show that the peptide-specific responses reflect those against whole virus antigens, and are similar in both frequency and phenotype to those found in healthy volunteers, despite a highly attenuated and clinically inapparent infection.