CD8-positive T cells articles from across Nature Portfolio

Cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTL) are important in the control of HIV and some HLA alleles are associated with protection or susceptibility to disease. Here the authors characterise an epitope where variants bind to HLA-B57 or HLA-B53 and they characterise the structural and functional TCR recognition differences.

Catch bonds where lifetime increases with force applied can form when T cell receptors (TCR) interact with agonist peptide-MHC (pMHC) complexes. Here the authors use a modelling and experimental approach to analyse 55 TCR–pMHC bond lifetime curves measured under force to further characterise the structural bases and functional relevance of catch bonds.

CAR T cell success requires targeting tumors, but these cells can get trapped in other tissues, such as in the lungs, where they can cause pathology. Here, the authors use a loss-of-function CRISPR screen to identify regulators of CAR T cell tumor trafficking and engineer CAR T cells accordingly to overcome this limitation.

IL-2 complexes (IL-2c) which are IL-2 complexed with anti-IL-2 can be used to promote T cell function. Here authors use IL2c in addition to checkpoint inhibitors and irradiation to increase anti-tumour T cell responses and promote tumour rejection in mouse cancer models.

Mitophagy inhibition rescues cellular dysfunction through enhancing metabolic fitness in CD8 and NKT lymphocytes during SARS-CoV-2 infection.