Expansion of the HSV-2-specific T cell repertoire in skin after immunotherapeutic HSV-2 vaccine.

ABSTRACT: The skin at the site of HSV-2 reactivation is enriched for HSV-2-specific T cells. To evaluate whether an immunotherapeutic vaccine could elicit skin-based memory T cells, we studied skin biopsies and HSV-2-reactive CD4⁺ T cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) by T cell receptor β (TRB) sequencing before and after vaccination with a replication-incompetent whole virus HSV-2 vaccine candidate (HSV529). The representation of HSV-2-reactive CD4⁺ TRB sequences from PBMCs in the skin TRB repertoire increased after the first vaccine dose. We found sustained expansion after vaccination of unique, skin-based T-cell clonotypes that were not detected in HSV-2-reactive CD4⁺ T cells isolated from PBMCs. In one participant a switch i

SUBMITTER: Ford ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10863019 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature