New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cells

The conserved lysosomal degradation pathway autophagy is now recognised as an essential cog in immune function. While functionally widespread in the innate immune system, knowledge of its roles in adaptive immunity is more limited. Although autophagy has been implicated in naïve T cell homeostasis,...

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Main Authors: D. J. Puleston, A. K. Simon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Shared Science Publishers OG 2015-03-01
Series:Microbial Cell
Subjects:
Online Access:http://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/new-roles-for-autophagy-and-spermidine-in-t-cells/
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author D. J. Puleston
A. K. Simon
author_facet D. J. Puleston
A. K. Simon
author_sort D. J. Puleston
collection DOAJ
description The conserved lysosomal degradation pathway autophagy is now recognised as an essential cog in immune function. While functionally widespread in the innate immune system, knowledge of its roles in adaptive immunity is more limited. Although autophagy has been implicated in naïve T cell homeostasis, its requirement in antigen-specific T cells during infection was unknown. Using a murine model where the essential autophagy gene Atg7 is deleted in the T cell lineage, we have shown that autophagy is dispensable for effector CD8+ T cell responses, but crucial for the formation of memory CD8+ T cells. Here, we suggest reasons why autophagy might be important for the formation of long-lasting immunity. Like in the absence of autophagy, T cell memory formation during ageing is also defective. We observed diminished autophagy levels in T cells from aged mice, linking autophagy to immunosenescence. Importantly, T cell responses to influenza vaccination could be significantly improved using the autophagy-inducing compound spermidine. These results suggest the autophagy pathway as a desirable target to improve aged immunity and modulate T cell function.
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spelling doaj.art-c4861579c8e649beace32643bd3a4cf72022-12-22T02:52:37ZengShared Science Publishers OGMicrobial Cell2311-26382015-03-0123919310.15698/mic2015.03.195New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cellsD. J. Puleston0A. K. Simon1MRC Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, OX3 9DS.MRC Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, OX3 9DS.The conserved lysosomal degradation pathway autophagy is now recognised as an essential cog in immune function. While functionally widespread in the innate immune system, knowledge of its roles in adaptive immunity is more limited. Although autophagy has been implicated in naïve T cell homeostasis, its requirement in antigen-specific T cells during infection was unknown. Using a murine model where the essential autophagy gene Atg7 is deleted in the T cell lineage, we have shown that autophagy is dispensable for effector CD8+ T cell responses, but crucial for the formation of memory CD8+ T cells. Here, we suggest reasons why autophagy might be important for the formation of long-lasting immunity. Like in the absence of autophagy, T cell memory formation during ageing is also defective. We observed diminished autophagy levels in T cells from aged mice, linking autophagy to immunosenescence. Importantly, T cell responses to influenza vaccination could be significantly improved using the autophagy-inducing compound spermidine. These results suggest the autophagy pathway as a desirable target to improve aged immunity and modulate T cell function.http://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/new-roles-for-autophagy-and-spermidine-in-t-cells/autophagyT cell memoryspermidineT cellsageingimmunosenescenceimmunity
spellingShingle D. J. Puleston
A. K. Simon
New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cells
Microbial Cell
autophagy
T cell memory
spermidine
T cells
ageing
immunosenescence
immunity
title New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cells
title_full New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cells
title_fullStr New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cells
title_full_unstemmed New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cells
title_short New roles for autophagy and spermidine in T cells
title_sort new roles for autophagy and spermidine in t cells
topic autophagy
T cell memory
spermidine
T cells
ageing
immunosenescence
immunity
url http://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/new-roles-for-autophagy-and-spermidine-in-t-cells/
work_keys_str_mv AT djpuleston newrolesforautophagyandspermidineintcells
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