{"id":77417,"date":"2026-09-29T00:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/09\/29\/live-versus-killed-listeria-monocytogenes-immunization-differentially-programs-hup-specific-cd4-t-cell-responses-with-distinct-protective-outcomes\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T00:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:10:08","slug":"live-versus-killed-listeria-monocytogenes-immunization-differentially-programs-hup-specific-cd4-t-cell-responses-with-distinct-protective-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/09\/29\/live-versus-killed-listeria-monocytogenes-immunization-differentially-programs-hup-specific-cd4-t-cell-responses-with-distinct-protective-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"Live versus killed Listeria monocytogenes immunization differentially programs Hup-specific CD4+ T cell responses with distinct protective outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><b>J Immunol<\/b>. 2026 Aug 29;215(9):vkag253. doi: 10.1093\/jimmun\/vkag253.<\/p>\n<p><b>ABSTRACT<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The histone-like protein Hup is a highly conserved DNA-stabilizing and compacting protein found across bacterial families. We previously demonstrated that the Hup protein of Staphylococcus and Streptococcus species harbors a shared CD4+ T cell epitope, and that Hup77-88-specific CD4+ T cells confer cross-species protection against pulmonary infection with these bacteria. Here, we investigated whether exposure to the Gram-positive intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, that expresses an orthologous Hup protein, induces a Hup-specific CD4+ T cell response. Live L. monocytogenes infection in mice generated detectable but modest Hup78-89-specific CD4+ T cell responses. In contrast, immunization with heat-killed L. monocytogenes or infection with a listeriolysin O-deficient strain, induced robust Hup78-89-specific Th17 responses. Despite their expansion, heat-killed L. monocytogenes-induced Hup-specific CD4+ T cells did not protect against secondary L. monocytogenes challenge, consistent with the requirement for T helper 1 and CD8+ T cell immunity for anti-Listeria protection. However, these CD4+ T cells conferred protection against pulmonary infection with Staphylococcus aureus expressing the L. monocytogenes Hup epitope. These findings establish Hup as conserved CD4+ T cell antigen target across bacterial species and demonstrates that T cell polarization and pathogen lifecycle are critical considerations when designing pan-antibacterial vaccines targeting shared bacterial antigens.<\/p>\n<p>PMID:<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/42804763\/?utm_source=SimplePie&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_content=2985117R&amp;ff=20260928181007&amp;v=2.20.1\">42804763<\/a> | DOI:<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/jimmun\/vkag253\">10.1093\/jimmun\/vkag253<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J Immunol. 2026 Aug 29;215(9):vkag253. doi: 10.1093\/jimmun\/vkag253. ABSTRACT The histone-like protein Hup is a highly conserved DNA-stabilizing and compacting protein found across bacterial families. We previously demonstrated that the Hup protein of Staphylococcus and Streptococcus species harbors a shared CD4+ T cell epitope, and that Hup77-88-specific CD4+ T cells confer cross-species protection against pulmonary infection &#8230; <a title=\"Live versus killed Listeria monocytogenes immunization differentially programs Hup-specific CD4+ T cell responses with distinct protective outcomes\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/09\/29\/live-versus-killed-listeria-monocytogenes-immunization-differentially-programs-hup-specific-cd4-t-cell-responses-with-distinct-protective-outcomes\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Live versus killed Listeria monocytogenes immunization differentially programs Hup-specific CD4+ T cell responses with distinct protective outcomes\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77417","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\/77417","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=77417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}