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The origins of memory T cells

Memory T cells protect against previously encountered pathogens, but their origins are unclear. Two studies track DNA modifications over time and find that these cells arise from effector T cells.
  1. Kyla D. Omilusik

    1. Kyla D. Omilusik is in the Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.

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  2. Ananda W. Goldrath

    1. Ananda W. Goldrath is in the Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.

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Vaccination has substantially reduced illness and death from infectious disease by exploiting the ability of long-lived memory T cells to ‘remember’ a previous encounter with a specific microbe and mount a rapid response upon pathogen re-exposure. Understanding how immunological memory is established and maintained might provide insights that could enable improvements in vaccine design. In this issue, Akondy et al.1 (page 362) and Youngblood et al.2 (page 404) reveal the cell population that gives rise to memory T cells, and how the population of memory T cells evolves.

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Nature 552, 337-339 (2017)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-08280-8

References

  1. Akondy, R. S. et al. Nature 552, 362–367 (2017).

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  2. Youngblood, B. et al. Nature 552, 404–409 (2017).

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