{"id":36320,"date":"2025-06-27T00:48:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T22:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/highly-cross-reactive-and-competent-effectors-dominate-the-cd8-t-cell-response-in-trypanosoma-cruzi-infection\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T00:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T22:48:45","slug":"highly-cross-reactive-and-competent-effectors-dominate-the-cd8-t-cell-response-in-trypanosoma-cruzi-infection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/highly-cross-reactive-and-competent-effectors-dominate-the-cd8-t-cell-response-in-trypanosoma-cruzi-infection\/","title":{"rendered":"Highly cross-reactive and competent effectors dominate the CD8+ T cell response in Trypanosoma cruzi infection"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><b>J Immunol<\/b>. 2025 Jun 16:vkaf107. doi: 10.1093\/jimmun\/vkaf107. Online ahead of print.<\/p>\n<p><b>ABSTRACT<\/b><\/p>\n<p>CD8+ T cells are key effectors in immune control of Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Within C57BL\/6 mice, the T. cruzi-specific CD8+ T cell response is largely comprised of T cells recognizing trans-sialidase (TS)- and mucin-encoded epitopes. Despite their immunodominance, these epitope-specific CD8+ T cells are entirely dispensable for immune control. In a screen for epitopes inducing &#8220;protective&#8221; CD8+ T cells, we uncovered a high level of cross-reactivity within the TSKb20-specific CD8+ T cell response. This cross-reactivity was driven by the TSKb20 epitope itself and not the infection. TCR sequencing defined key characteristics of the TSKb20 repertoire including biased TRBV12-1\/12-2 and TRBJ2-1\/2-7 gene usage and a highly dominant CDR3\u03b2 motif. The dispensability of the TSKb20 response in the control of T. cruzi infection along with the broad reactivity of this T cell population prompted us to assess the relative effector capacity of TSKb20 T cells at the site of reinfection. Similar to other activated CD8+ T cells at the site, TSKb20-specific CD8+ T cells expressed transcriptional patterns associated with effector function, suggesting that TSKb20 T cells are capable and likely participants in parasite control. These results indicate that broad TCR reactivity does not compromise the ability of TSKb20-specific T cells to develop into phenotypically functional effectors. Additionally, the failure to identify individual parasite epitopes capable of driving a protective CD8+ T cell response challenges the paradigm that individual T. cruzi epitopes, including highly immunodominant ones, are critical to or exploitable for the potent recognition of T. cruzi-infected host cells and infection control.<\/p>\n<p>PMID:<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/40570098\/?utm_source=WordPress&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_content=2985117R&amp;ff=20250626184844&amp;v=2.18.0.post9+e462414\">40570098<\/a> | DOI:<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/jimmun\/vkaf107\">10.1093\/jimmun\/vkaf107<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J Immunol. 2025 Jun 16:vkaf107. doi: 10.1093\/jimmun\/vkaf107. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT CD8+ T cells are key effectors in immune control of Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Within C57BL\/6 mice, the T. cruzi-specific CD8+ T cell response is largely comprised of T cells recognizing trans-sialidase (TS)- and mucin-encoded epitopes. Despite their immunodominance, these epitope-specific CD8+ T cells &#8230; <a title=\"Highly cross-reactive and competent effectors dominate the CD8+ T cell response in Trypanosoma cruzi infection\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/highly-cross-reactive-and-competent-effectors-dominate-the-cd8-t-cell-response-in-trypanosoma-cruzi-infection\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Highly cross-reactive and competent effectors dominate the CD8+ T cell response in Trypanosoma cruzi infection\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publicaciones","category-the-journal-of-immunology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}