Profound protection against respiratory challenge with a lethal H7N7 influenza A virus by increasing the magnitude of CD8+ T-cell memory

The recall of CD8(+) T-cell memory established by infecting H-2(b) mice with an HINT influenza A virus provided a measure of protection against an extremely virulent H7N7 virus. The numbers of CD8(+) effector and memory T cells specific for the shared, immunodominant (DNP366)-N-b epitope were greatly increased subsequent to the H7N7 challenge, and though lung titers remained as high as those in naive controls for 5 days or more, the virus was cleared more rapidly. Expanding the CD8(+) memory T-cell pool (< 0.5 to > 10%) by sequential priming with two different influenza A viruses (H3N2 --> H1N1) gave much better protection. Though the H7N7 virus initially grew to equivalent titers in the lungs of naive and double-primed mice, the replicative phase was substantially controlled within 3 days. This tertiary H7N7 challenge caused little increase in the magnitude of the CD8(+) (DNP366+)-N-b T-cell pool, and only a portion of the memory population in the lymphoid tissue could be shown to proliferate. The great majority of the CD8(+) (DNP366+)-N-b set that localized to the infected respiratory tract had, however, cycled at least once, though recent cell division was shown not to be a prerequisite for T-cell extravasation. The selective induction of CD8(+) T-cell memory can thus greatly limit the damage caused by a virulent influenza A virus, with the extent of protection being directly related to the number of available responders. Furthermore, a large pool of CD8(+) memory T cells may be only partially utilized to deal with a potentially lethal influenza infection.