Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Author's Takes
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • 100th Anniversary of Insulin's Discovery (Jan 2021)
    • Hypoxia-inducible factors in disease pathophysiology and therapeutics (Oct 2020)
    • Latency in Infectious Disease (Jul 2020)
    • Immunotherapy in Hematological Cancers (Apr 2020)
    • Big Data's Future in Medicine (Feb 2020)
    • Mechanisms Underlying the Metabolic Syndrome (Oct 2019)
    • Reparative Immunology (Jul 2019)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • Recently published
    • In-Press Preview
    • Commentaries
    • Concise Communication
    • Editorials
    • Viewpoint
    • Top read articles
  • Clinical Medicine
  • JCI This Month
    • Current issue
    • Past issues

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Author's Takes
  • Recently published
  • In-Press Preview
  • Commentaries
  • Concise Communication
  • Editorials
  • Viewpoint
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
Toward a broadly protective influenza vaccine
Peter C. Doherty, Anne Kelso
Peter C. Doherty, Anne Kelso
Published September 18, 2008
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2008;118(10):3273-3275. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI37232.
View: Text | PDF
Commentary

Toward a broadly protective influenza vaccine

  • Text
  • PDF
Abstract

The current inactivated influenza virus vaccines induce antibodies that protect against closely related virus strains. They do not, however, protect against antibody-escape variants of seasonal influenza A viruses or new pandemic influenza A viruses emerging from non-human reservoirs. Might boosting influenza A virus–specific CD8+ T cell memory diminish the danger posed by these variant viruses? Pre-existing CD8+ T cell–mediated immunity directed at peptides from conserved internal proteins of the influenza A virus does not prevent infection, but it can promote early virus clearance and decrease morbidity in mice. In this issue of the JCI, Lee et al. show that people who have not been exposed to avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses have cross-reactive CD8+ T cell memory to a wide range of H5N1 peptides (see the related article beginning on page 3478). These peptides could be used to add a CD8+ T cell component to current antibody-focused vaccine strategies with a view to reducing the impact of infection with novel influenza A viruses.

Authors

Peter C. Doherty, Anne Kelso

×

Figure 1

The CTL response to influenza A virus infection.

Options: View larger image (or click on image) Download as PowerPoint
The CTL response to influenza A virus infection.
Influenza A viruses rap...
Influenza A viruses rapidly grow to very high titers in the lungs of infected mice (primary virus growth). Virus clearance is only enhanced (secondary virus growth) by approximately 2–3 days (21) in those animals that have memory CD8+ CTL numbers at what might be considered normal, physiological prevalence (<0.5% in spleen). Boosting those CTL counts (to >5%) a few weeks before viral challenge by some form of secondary stimulation can cause the period before the virus is successfully eliminated to be shortened by 48 hours or more (tertiary virus growth) (22). As shown in this issue of the JCI in the study by Lee et al. (14), most people already possess memory CTLs specific for the influenza A viruses. In the face of a rapidly emerging seasonal influenza epidemic, or a pandemic caused by a novel influenza A virus, a possible future strategy to mitigate the impact would be to stockpile a vaccine for emergency use that increases CD8+ CTL numbers.
Follow JCI:
Copyright © 2021 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts