Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Effect Of Bacterial Superantigens On The Magnitude And Breadth Of Influenza-Specific Cd8+ T Cell Responses, Courtney Meilleur

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Severe cases of influenza A virus (IAV) infection are often complicated by concomitant bacterial pneumonia or sepsis. Many bacterial species are capable of producing potent immunomodulators called superantigens (SAgs), which have the potential to interfere with cell-based antiviral immune mechanisms. I asked what effects bacterial SAgs have on both the magnitude and the breadth of antiviral CD8⁺ T cell (TCD8⁺) responses. Surprisingly, administration of SAgs to mice shortly before or after vaccination with IAV increased the number of primary TCD8⁺ responding to select IAV-derived epitopes. T cell receptor staining of these SAg-augmented populations revealed expression of …