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Augmenting CD8+ T cell responses following infection with IL‐15/sIL‐15Rá complexes.
Author(s) -
Rubinstein Mark P,
Lind Nicholas A.,
Filippou Pauline,
Best J. Adam,
McGhee Patrick A.,
Goldrath Ananda W
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.1070.7
Subject(s) - interleukin 15 , cd8 , cytotoxic t cell , immunology , biology , t cell , chemistry , interleukin , antigen , immune system , cytokine , in vitro , biochemistry
Administration of IL‐15 has shown efficacy in augmenting CD8 + T cell responses following vaccination. However, soluble IL‐15 is limited in vivo by poor half life and limited biological activity. Recent studies have demonstrated that the biological activity of soluble IL‐15 could be significantly improved by association with its soluble IL‐15 receptor alpha subunit (sIL‐15Rα). After injection, soluble IL‐15/IL‐15Rα complexes rapidly induced strong and selective expansion of memory CD8 + cells and natural killer cells. We now find that injection of IL‐15/IL‐15Rα complexes following viral or bacterial infection can dramatically increase the number of responding antigen‐specific CD8 + T cells. Importantly, IL‐15/IL‐15Rα complexes not only augmented the response of donor CD8 + T cells but also endogenous CD8 + T cells present at low precursor frequencies. Our results suggest that administration of IL‐15/IL‐15Rα complexes may have utility for augmenting vaccine strategies against infectious disease or cancer.