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Listeria monocytogenes: a model pathogen to study antigen-specific memory CD8 T cell responses

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Abstract

Memory CD8 T cells play a critical role in providing protection to immune hosts by orchestrating rapid elimination of pathogen-infected cells after re-infection. Systemic bacterial infection with Listeria monocytogenes has been a favored approach for researchers to characterize pathogen-specific CD8 T cell responses, and in-depth understanding of L. monocytogenes biology has provided invaluable experimental tools that have been used to increase our understanding of memory CD8 T cell differentiation. Here, we describe how the tools from this murine model system of infection have been utilized to characterize pathogen-specific CD8 T cells in inbred and genetically diverse outbred hosts as they undergo naïve-to-memory CD8 T cell differentiation in vivo. We also discuss how studying L. monocytogenes-evoked CD8 T cell responses have provided insight on the degree of diminished T cell immunity in clinically relevant conditions such as sepsis and obesity. Overall, this review will highlight how infection with the intracellular pathogen L. monocytogenes has enabled analysis of systemic CD8 T cell responses and greatly contributed to what is known about memory CD8 T cell generation and differentiation.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge current members of our laboratory for helpful discussion and careful review of the manuscript. Work described in this review was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant AI114543.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Immunology, University of Iowa, 100 Medical Laboratories, 1169 ML, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Shaniya H. Khan & Vladimir P. Badovinac

  2. Department of Pathology, University of Iowa, 100 Medical Laboratories, 1169 ML, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Vladimir P. Badovinac

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  1. Shaniya H. Khan
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  2. Vladimir P. Badovinac
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Correspondence to Vladimir P. Badovinac.

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This article is a contribution to the Special Issue on : CD8+ T-cell Responses against Non-viral Pathogens – Guest Editors Fidel Zavala and Imtiaz Khan

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Khan, S.H., Badovinac, V.P. Listeria monocytogenes: a model pathogen to study antigen-specific memory CD8 T cell responses. Semin Immunopathol 37, 301–310 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-015-0477-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-015-0477-5

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