Cross-Reactive Memory CD4 + and CD8 + T Cells Alter the Immune Response to Heterologous Secondary Dengue Virus Infections in Mice: A Dissertation

Abstract

Dengue virus (DENV) infects 50-100 million people worldwide every year and is the causative agent of dengue fever (DF) and the more severe dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS). There are four genetically and immunologically distinct DENV serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4). Evidence suggests that an increased risk for DHF/DSS during secondary infection with a heterologous DENV serotype is due to an immunopathological response mediated by serotype-cross-reactive memory T cells from the primary infection. Furthermore, epidemiological studies have shown that the sequence of infection with different DENV serotypes affects disease severity. Though much has been learned from human studies, there exist uncontrollable variables that are intrinsic in this system such as genetic factors and unknown infection histories. These factors can skew experimental results, making interpretations difficult. Therefore, a murine model to study the immunologic aspects of sequential dengue infections would be an asset to the field of dengue research. To examine the effect of sequential infection with different DENV serotypes on the CD8 + T cell response, we immunized Balb/c mice with a primary DENV infection on day 0 and subsequently challenged with a heterologous secondary DENV infection on day 28. We tested all possible sequences of infection with the four serotypes. We analyzed the T cell response to two previously defined epitopes on the DENV E (L d -restricted) and NS3 (K d -restricted) proteins. Using ELISPOT and intracellular cytokine staining, we measured the frequency of T cells secreting IFNγ and TNFα in response to stimulation with these epitopes during three phases: acute primary, acute secondary, and the memory phase after primary infection. We found that the T cell response in heterologous secondary infections was higher in magnitude than the response in acute primary infection or during the memory phase. We also found that the hierarchy of epitope specific responses, as measured by IFNγ secretion, was influenced by the sequence of infections. The adoptive transfer of immune serum or immune splenocytes suggested that memory T cells from the primary infection responded to antigens from the secondary infection. In vitro experiments with T cell lines generated from mice with primary and secondary DENV infections suggested the preferential expansion of crossreactive memory T cells. In testing all of the different possible sequences of infection, we observed that two different sequences of infection (e.g., DENV-2 followed by DENV-1 versus DENV-2 followed by DENV-3) resulted in differential CD8 + T cell responses to the NS3 peptide even though both secondary infection serotypes contain the identical peptide sequence. To investigate this phenomenon, we examined the role of CD4 + T cell help on the memory CD8 + T cell response. We found that CD4 + T cell cytokine responses differ depending on the sequence of…