Inducing memory inflation (MI) is a promising future vaccination strategy. We show that spread-defective cytomegalovirus does not induce MI in the absence of CD4+ T cells. Support from CD4+ T cells can drive effector differentiation of MI cells, even late in the response, and contributes to long-term response maintenance.
ABSTRACT
Memory inflation (MI) is a distinctive CD8+ T cell response to chronic cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, characterized by non-contracting, functional populations that are predominantly effector differentiated. Harnessing such responses has received growing attention as a promising vaccination strategy, using spread-defective CMV-vectors. However, many underlying mechanistic aspects of CD8+ MI responses, including their dependency on CD4+ T cell help, remain unclear. Using a Rag KO transfer model, we demonstrate that CD4+ T cells enhance effector differentiation of inflationary CD8+ T cells when present during priming, or when introduced at late timepoints post-infection, indicating a continuous, priming-independent support mechanism. This helper requirement was specific to spread-defective CMV infection, whereas spread-competent virus induced MI even in the absence of CD4+ T cells. We confirmed the importance of continuous support in wild-type mice, where late CD4 depletion attenuated an established MI response. Gene set enrichment analysis implicates IFNγ, TNF, and IL-1 signaling as potential mediators of CD4+ T cell support. Our findings clarify CD4+ T cell help requirements for maintaining effector populations in MI during chronic antigen exposure. These results have particular relevance for spread-defective CMV-based vaccination strategies and T cell-based therapies in which the persistence and expansion characteristic of MI are desirable qualities.