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Science. a humoral response. Finally, we exhibited that effector CD8+ T cells Ombrabulin hydrochloride also Ombrabulin hydrochloride contribute to viral control in the presence of circulating YF-specific antibodies. To our knowledge this is the first time that YF-specific CD8+ T cells have been demonstrated to possess antiviral activity in vivo. Introduction The yellow fever (YF) vaccine, based on the live-attenuated YF-17D virus, is one of the most effective vaccines ever made (1), and in the 80 years that have exceeded since its establishment it has been administered to over 600 million people globally. It was developed in the 1930s by Max Theiler and associates, who experimentally attenuated the wild type Ombrabulin hydrochloride (wt) Asibi strain of YF virus by more than 200 serial tissue culture passages through monkey, mouse embryonic tissue and chicken embryonic tissue (2,3). Vaccination with YF-17D virus results in an acute viral infection during which there is a transient viral replication that peaks approximately 5C7 days after virus inoculation, and subsequently dissipates. A single immunization is known to protect against contamination in more than 90% of vaccinees (1,3), and neutralizing antibodies are thought to be the primary correlate of protection against contamination with wt YF virus (4). However, YF-17D virus has also been demonstrated to be a potent inducer of cytotoxic T cell responses (5,6), suggesting a potential role also for cell-mediated immunity in the control of the Ombrabulin hydrochloride natural contamination. The last decade has seen a growing interest in the YF vaccine because of its live viral nature, which offers the possibility to study the immune response to an acute viral contamination in humans, and for its emerging potential as a recombinant vaccine vector (7C10). Moreover, the re-emergence of YF in some areas of the world in the last 20 years has contributed in bringing the YF-17D vaccine back to the attention of the scientific community. An interesting feature of the YF-17D virus is its conversation with human DCs; a recent study has shown its ability to activate several DC subsets – such as myeloid and plasmacytoid DCs through engagement of TLR2, TLR7, TLR8 and TLR9, resulting in the production of a mixed Th1/Th2 cytokine profile (11). Moreover, Barba-Spaeth et al. exhibited direct contamination of both immature and mature DCs by YF-17D virus, leading to presentation of endogenous antigen and consequent CD8+ T cell activation; something that has been proposed as a mechanism contributing to the strong and long lasting immunity elicited by vaccination (12). A number of studies have described in details the development of the human T cell response following vaccination with YF-17D virus, and characterized the phenotypical changes occurring during the transition from the effector to the memory phase (6,13,14). However, there is still very little known about the contribution of the virus-induced T cell response to the establishment and maintenance of protection from yellow fever infection. This is due, at least in part, to the intrinsic limitations of studying immune responses in humans, where only some features of the host response following Rabbit Polyclonal to GALK1 vaccination can be analyzed. In this context, a small animal model may prove to be a valuable tool to examine in much greater detail the functional role of the different arms of the immune system in YF-17D induced immunity. In this report, we describe a mouse model for contamination with YF-17D virus and characterize the effector mechanisms underlying vaccine-induced protection in vivo. Most important, we show that, even though humoral immunity represents the principal effector arm of the adaptive immune response when it comes to preventing a lethal outcome of YF contamination, effector CD8+ T cells also significantly contribute to viral control in the brain, which is the decisive site for virus replication in this model system. Collectively, our data demonstrate for the first time that CD8+ T cells may play an important role in controlling contamination with YF virus. Materials and Methods Mice Female C57BL/6 (wt B6) mice as well as MHC class I (2m?/?) and MHC class II (A?/?) deficient mice on a B6 background were obtained from Taconic Farms. B cell deficient (MT) mice were either obtained directly from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) or the local progeny of such animals. Perforin (Prf) deficient and IFN- deficient mice were originally obtained from The Jackson Laboratory, and IFN-/Perforin double-deficient (IFN-/Prf) mice were generated locally through intercrossing of these strains, as previously referred to (15). 1.