T Cell Responses to Pathogenic Infections

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Immunological Responses and Immune Defense Mechanisms".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2024) | Viewed by 2982

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Guest Editor
Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology Department, College of Medicine Faculty, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Bryan, TX, USA
Interests: adaptive immunity and immunotherapy
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Dear Colleagues,

T cells play a central role in the immune response against pathogenic infections, and T-cell-based therapy has shown great potential as a more powerful approach to treating various pathogenic diseases by harnessing the body's immune system. It is anticipated that the responses initiated by immunotherapeutic interventions will explicitly demonstrate the ability to discerningly suppress the individual disease while maintaining the rest of the immune system in a functionally active state. Increasing our knowledge of cellular immunology and the host immune response has led to the exciting development of diverse immunotherapeutic modalities, including the blockade of immune checkpoints, the induced activation of CD8 + cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) or CD4 + regulatory T cells (Tregs), the use of non-specific immunosuppressive drugs with associated side effects (e.g., anti-CD3, CD20, or CD52 antibody), adoptive T-cell transfer (ACT)-based therapy, and the modulation of the local environment, including the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the inflammatory microenvironment (IME), to facilitate T cell immunity (e.g., low-dose IL-2 treatment). However, despite the advances in T-cell-based therapy, the clinical efficacy and benefits remain less satisfactory due to a variety of factors that lessen antiviral immunity, which include ex vivo T cell production, limited in vivo T cell expansion and persistence, auto antigen identification, the generation of antigen-specific T cells, off-target complications, local environment, T cell trafficking to local sites, etc. Effective strategies to bypass these barriers should significantly improve T-cell-based immunotherapy for pathogenic diseases, and are thus urgently needed.

Prof. Dr. Jianxun Song
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • pathogen
  • T cell
  • immunotherapy
  • persistence
  • cell metabolism
  • immunomodulation
  • exhaustion
  • memory
  • animal model

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 182 KiB  
Editorial
Role of T Cells in Microbial Pathogenesis
by Liqing Wang and Jianxun Song
Pathogens 2023, 12(11), 1321; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12111321 - 6 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1340
Abstract
The immune system functions as a sophisticated defense mechanism, shielding the body from harmful pathogenic invaders [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue T Cell Responses to Pathogenic Infections)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

14 pages, 2126 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Immune Exhaustion and Co-Inhibitory Receptor Expression in Mycobacterium avium Subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) Seropositive Diarrhoeic Bovines
by Shalini Sharma, Khushbu Sharma, Ram Kumar, Deen Dayal, Shweta Dhanda, Naveen Kumar, Kundan Kumar Chaubey, Shoor Vir Singh, Sikander Banger and Vishal Sharma
Pathogens 2024, 13(6), 473; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens13060473 - 4 Jun 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1139
Abstract
Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infection leads to chronic, persistent granulomatous enteritis, causing prolonged diarrhoea and emaciation. The disease is managed using medications such as antibiotics, live vaccines, mycobacteriophage therapies and other treatments; however, a notable proportion of affected animals do not show [...] Read more.
Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infection leads to chronic, persistent granulomatous enteritis, causing prolonged diarrhoea and emaciation. The disease is managed using medications such as antibiotics, live vaccines, mycobacteriophage therapies and other treatments; however, a notable proportion of affected animals do not show improvement with this approach. We hypothesise that immunoinhibitory receptors TIM-3 (T cell immunoglobulin mucin protein-3) and PD-1 (Programmed death receptor 1) may be upregulated on Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of MAP-seropositive bovines, potentially contributing to immune exhaustion. Samples (blood and faeces) were collected from 32 diarrhoeic bovines suspected of MAP infection; eight apparently healthy buffaloes from the dairy farm at Hisar, Haryana and from 14 cows (suffering from chronic diarrhoea, weakness and emaciation) housed in stray cattle shed. MAP infection was estimated using indigenous ELISA (i-ELISA), faecal IS900 PCR, culture and acid-fast staining. TIM-3 and PD-1 gene expression on PBMCs were determined using qRT-PCR. TIM3 expression was relatively higher (~400-fold, 330-fold, 112-fold, 65-fold and 16-fold) in 5 chronically diarrhoeic PBMCs samples (MAP-seropositive), and higher PD-1 expression (around ~7-fold, 1.75-fold, 2.5-fold, 7.6-fold) was recorded in 4 diarrhoeic MAP-seropositive animals, compared to apparently healthy and other MAP-seronegative diarrhoeic animals. High co-expression of TIM-3 and PD-1 levels was also recorded in chronically diarrhoeic, emaciated stray cattle. Understanding immune responses in field conditions might aid in the therapeutic management of paratuberculosis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue T Cell Responses to Pathogenic Infections)
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