Long-Term Vaccine Protection — The body’s adaptive immunity is mainly responsible for responding to vaccination—creating an immunological memory that allows the body to respond to and eliminate a pathogen to which it’s later exposed. Scientists have intensively studied how adaptive immunity combats pathogens, but little is known about how the other part of the immune system—innate immunity—assists with this process. In the June 12 issue of Immunity, senior author Dr. Gregoire Lauvau and colleagues examine how adaptive immunity’s memory T cells interact with innate immune cells in viral and bacterial models of infection. The team found that memory T cells rapidly release interferon gamma (IFN-γ), a key inflammatory molecule, which orchestrates innate immune cell activation, which represent the key mechanism for pathogen killing. Dr. Saidi M’Homa Soudja, postdoctoral fellow in the Lauvau lab, was lead author. Dr. Lauvau is an associate professor of microbiology and immunology.
Posted on: Friday, June 20, 2014