AUTHOR=Badolato-Corrêa Jessica , Carvalho Fabiana Rabe , Paiva Iury Amancio , Familiar-Macedo Débora , Dias Helver Gonçalves , Pauvolid-Corrêa Alex , Fernandes-Santos Caroline , Lima Monique da Rocha Queiroz , Gandini Mariana , Silva Andréa Alice , Baeta Cavalcanti Silvia Maria , de Oliveira Solange Artimos , de Oliveira Vianna Renata Artimos , de Azeredo Elzinandes Leal , Cardoso Claudete Aparecida Araújo , Grifoni Alba , Sette Alessandro , Weiskopf Daniela , de-Oliveira-Pinto Luzia Maria TITLE=Differential Longevity of Memory CD4 and CD8 T Cells in a Cohort of the Mothers With a History of ZIKV Infection and Their Children JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.610456 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2021.610456 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

Background: Zika virus (ZIKV) infection causes for mild and self-limiting disease in healthy adults. In newborns, it can occasionally lead to a spectrum of malformations, the congenital Zika syndrome (CZS). Thus, little is known if mothers and babies with a history of ZIKV infection were able to develop long-lasting T-cell immunity. To these issues, we measure the prevalence of ZIKV T-cell immunity in a cohort of mothers infected to the ZIKV during pregnancy in the 2016–2017 Zika outbreak, who gave birth to infants affected by neurological complications or asymptomatic ones.

Results: Twenty-one mothers and 18 children were tested for IFN-γ ELISpot and T-cell responses for flow cytometry assays in response to CD4 ZIKV and CD8 ZIKV megapools (CD4 ZIKV MP and CD8 ZIKV MP). IFN-γ ELISpot responses to ZIKV MPs showed an increased CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses in mothers compared to children. The degranulation activity and IFN-γ-producing CD4 T cells were detected in most mothers, and children, while in CD8 T-cells, low responses were detected in these study groups. The total Temra T cell subset is enriched for IFN-γ+ CD4 T cells after stimulation of CD4 ZIKV MP.

Conclusion: Donors with a history of ZIKV infection demonstrated long-term CD4 T cell immunity to ZIKV CD4 MP. However, the same was not observed in CD8 T cells with the ZIKV CD8 MP. One possibility is that the cytotoxic and pro-inflammatory activities of CD8 T cells are markedly demonstrated in the early stages of infection, but less detected in the disease resolution phase, when the virus has already been eliminated. The responses of mothers' T cells to ZIKV MPs do not appear to be related to their children's clinical outcome. There was also no marked difference in the T cell responses to ZIKV MP between children affected or not with CZS. These data still need to be investigated, including the evaluation of the response of CD8 T cells to other ZIKV peptides.