Enhancement of Antiviral T-Cell Responses by Vitamin C Suggests New Strategies to Improve Manufacturing of Virus-Specific T Cells for Adoptive Immunotherapy
Date
2022Author
Mangare, Caroline
Laubert, Miriam
Bonifacius, Agnes
Dragon, Anna Christina
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Allogeneic and autologous transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCT) are being
routinely used to treat patients with leukemia and lymphoma. Due to the required immunosuppression after stem cell transplantation, infection and reactivation by viruses are life-threatening
complications. In recent years, adoptive transfer using virus-specific T cells (VSTs) has emerged
as alternative to conventional therapies. Since vitamins are described to influence the immune
system and its cellular components, the aim of this study was to examine whether vitamins modulate
VST function and thereby enable an improvement of therapy. For that, we investigated the impact
of vitamin C and D on the functionality of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific T cells isolated from
CMV-seropositive healthy donors. We were able to show that vitamin C increases the expansion and
activation state of CMV-specific T cells, and an increased influence of vitamin C was observed on cells
isolated from male donors and donors above 40 years of age. A higher frequency of the terminally
differentiated effector memory CD8+ T-cell population in these donors indicates a connection between
these cells and the enhanced response to vitamin C. Thus, here we provide insights into the impact
of vitamin C on cytotoxic T cells as well as possible additional selection criteria and strategies to
improve VST functionality.
URI
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11040536http://repository.mut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/6624
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- Journal Articles (PAS) [293]
