Human Vδ1⁺ T cells in the immune response to Plasmodium falciparum infection

TY - JOUR

T1 - Human Vδ1+ T cells in the immune response to Plasmodium falciparum infection

AU - Hviid, Lars

AU - Smith-Togobo, Cecilia

AU - Willcox, Benjamin E

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Naturally acquired protective immunity to Plasmodium falciparum malaria is mainly antibody-mediated. However, other cells of the innate and adaptive immune system also play important roles. These include so-called unconventional T cells, which express a aã T-cell receptor (TCR) rather than the δ TCR expressed by the majority of T cells-the conventional T cells. The aã T-cell compartment can be divided into distinct subsets. One expresses a TCR involving Vδ9 and Vä2, while another major subset uses instead a TCR composed of Vä1 paired with one of several types of ã chains. The former of these subsets uses a largely semi-invariant TCR repertoire and responds in an innate-like fashion to pyrophosphate antigens generated by various stressed host cells and infectious pathogens, including P. falciparum. In this short review, we focus instead on the Vä1 subset, which appears to have a more adaptive immunobiology, but which has been much less studied in general and in malaria in particular. We discuss the evidence that Vä1+ cells do indeed play a role in malaria and speculate on the function and specificity of this cell type, which is increasingly attracting the attention of immunologists.

AB - Naturally acquired protective immunity to Plasmodium falciparum malaria is mainly antibody-mediated. However, other cells of the innate and adaptive immune system also play important roles. These include so-called unconventional T cells, which express a aã T-cell receptor (TCR) rather than the δ TCR expressed by the majority of T cells-the conventional T cells. The aã T-cell compartment can be divided into distinct subsets. One expresses a TCR involving Vδ9 and Vä2, while another major subset uses instead a TCR composed of Vä1 paired with one of several types of ã chains. The former of these subsets uses a largely semi-invariant TCR repertoire and responds in an innate-like fashion to pyrophosphate antigens generated by various stressed host cells and infectious pathogens, including P. falciparum. In this short review, we focus instead on the Vä1 subset, which appears to have a more adaptive immunobiology, but which has been much less studied in general and in malaria in particular. We discuss the evidence that Vä1+ cells do indeed play a role in malaria and speculate on the function and specificity of this cell type, which is increasingly attracting the attention of immunologists.

U2 - 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00259

DO - 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00259

M3 - Review

C2 - 30837999

SN - 1664-3224

VL - 10

JO - Frontiers in Immunology

JF - Frontiers in Immunology

M1 - 259

ER -