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Nature Medicine 7, 774 - 775 (2001)
doi:10.1038/89886

Life after death: Controlling autoreactive CD8+ T-cell responses

Thomas J. Braciale1

  1. University of Virginia Health Science Center Carter Immunology Center Departments of Pathology and Microbiology Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
    e-mail: tjb2r@virginia.edu

The uptake of apoptotic CD40L+ cells by immature dendritic cells leads to dendritic-cell activation. This mechanism might account for the generation of autoreactive CD8+ T cells in HIV infection and indicates a general mechanism for the regulation of autoimmune T-cell responses during infection. (pages 807–813)

There have been numerous reports of the development of autoantibodies, as well as autoimmune CD4+ and/or CD8+ T-cell responses, during infection, but the molecular mechanisms controlling these responses to self constituents remain unclear and controversial. Immune recognition by CD8+ T cells requires that the antigen receptor on the T cells recognize non-native peptide fragments of foreign proteins and, in some instances, of normal cellular (self) proteins displayed on the surface of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) bound to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules1.