Respiratory syncytial virus reduces STAT3 phosphorylation in human memory CD8 T cells stimulated with IL-21.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of childhood lower respiratory tract infections. The recent failure of a vaccine candidate based on recombinant F protein underlines the urgent need to better understand the protective human memory immune response against RSV. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 protein is a transcription factor that promotes the maturation of the memory CD8 T cell response in cooperation with IL-10 and IL-21. However, the role of in the memory CD8 T cell response during RSV infection remains to be elucidated. We found that in infants with bronchiolitis infected with RSV, the expression of duanyu18133 detected in nasal washes is reduced when compared to that in infants infected by other viruses. In vitro, RSV impairs duanyu18133 phosphorylation induced by IL-21 in purified human memory CD8 T cells. In addition, RSV decreases granzyme B production by memory CD8 T cells, reducing its cytotoxic activity against RSV-infected epithelial pulmonary cell lines. Together, these data indicate that RSV modulates the pathway in human memory CD8 T cells, and this could be a mechanism to be further explored to improve the memory response against the infection.

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