Lecture 19 - Memory T Cells Flashcards
2 things that happen when infection gets resolved
- contraction
- memory
what happens during contraction of immune response?
apoptosis kills most effector T cells but some cells remain as memory cells
what is AICD?
Activation-Induced Cell Death in activated T cells
why does AICD occur?
ensures homeostasis so we don’t have accumulation of lymphocytes from each response
what 2 things can trigger AICD
- Fas-L binding Fas
- TNFalpha/beta binding TNFR-1
role of IL2 in AICD
how does this relate to its normal role?
promote Fas-FasL dependent AICD on activated T cells
normally IL2 promotes T cell growth
what cells express FasL?
effector T cells
wha cells express Fas? what is the form of Fas?
activated T cells
Fas is in a trimer
what is the domain on Fas and TNFR-1 that mediate apoptosis
cytoplasmic death domains –> caspases 8/3
role of caspases
to chop up DNA inducing apoptosis
what happens with mutated Fas and FasL?
Leads to lymphoproliferative and autoimmune disorders
what occurs in a successful primary immune response?
pathogen is eliminated and there is long-lasting immune memory
besides T cells, what other component of the immune system protects against a re-infection?
Abs
how do Abs protect against re-infection?
neutralization and opsonization
4 effector functions of memory T cells
- cytokines
- cytotoxicity
- help
- regulation
how does Ab response change in primary vs secondary response? (2)
amount and affinity of Ab increases
lifespan of human memory T cell vs lifespan of human T cell memory
memory T cell: 30-160 days
T cell memory: 10-15 years
if T cell memory lasts much longer than a memory T cell, what does this indicate about memory T cells?
longevity is not an intrinsic characteristic of circulating memory T cells –> there is self-renewal of specific and highly differentiated/rapid effector functions
in CMV-carrying patient who underwent immunosuppressive treatment, what happens to CD8+ T cells when there is an increase in viral load and then when virus is cleared?
increase in viral load = increase in virus-specific effector CD8+ T cells
virus is cleared = 5% of activated T cells become memory T cells
describe relative number of Ag-specific T cells throughout immune response
Infection: increase up to 10,000x more Ag-specific T cells than naive
Memory: decrease to 100x more Ag-specific T cells than naive
describe how the relationship btwn number of memory cells and control of infection changes with age
young: more memory cells = more control of infection
old: more memory cells does not correlate to control of infection
why does the amount of memory cells not correlate to control of infection?
IMMUNOSENESCENCE
what is immunosenescence?
function/efficiency of the memory T cells decreases with age
what are 3 things that can cause immunosenescence?
- genetics
- epigenetics
- host factors