Abstracts of the 29th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC)
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Wnt pathway activation functionally reprograms human antigen-specific T cells
Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer volume 2, Article number: P4 (2014)
Polyfunctionality is a hallmark of protective immunity, yet the molecular mechanisms governing polyfunctional T cells are poorly understood. After TCR activation, naïve CD8+ T cells undergo proliferation and differentiation, which lead to effector functions and memory subset development. However only a portion of activated T cells develop into memory CD8+ T cells and with chronic stimulation become terminally differentiated and exhausted CD8+ T cells, as defined by CCR7-/CD45RA+, and functionally impair effective immune responses [1]. We therefore probed the ability to reverse terminally differentiated antigen-specific cells using pharmacological agents. Stimulating human memory CD8+ T cells with cognate TCR stimulation in the presence of Wnt agonist enhances polyfunctionality and stemness. Both M1-influenza+ and CMV+ CD8+ T cell responses were reprogrammed and revealed sustained effects from initial Wnt pathway activation in vitro. Future work with cancer antigens and reprogramming of differentiated CD8+ responses could lead to improved in vitro culture conditions for adoptive immunotherapy.
References
Seder R, Darrah P, Roederer M: T-cell quality in memory and protection: implications for vaccine design. Nat Rev Immunol. 2008, 8: 247-258. 10.1038/nri2274.
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Chiu, YL., Sung, By., Bessell, C. et al. Wnt pathway activation functionally reprograms human antigen-specific T cells. j. immunotherapy cancer 2 (Suppl 3), P4 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/2051-1426-2-S3-P4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2051-1426-2-S3-P4
Keywords
- Effector Function
- Protective Immunity
- Human Memory
- Cancer Antigen
- Adoptive Immunotherapy