Negative selection by an endogenous retrovirus promotes a higher-avidity CD4+ T cell response to retroviral infection.

ABSTRACT: Effective T cell responses can decisively influence the outcome of retroviral infection. However, what constitutes protective T cell responses or determines the ability of the host to mount such responses is incompletely understood. Here we studied the requirements for development and induction of CD4+ T cells that were essential for immunity to Friend virus (FV) infection of mice, according to their TCR avidity for an FV-derived epitope. We showed that a self peptide, encoded by an endogenous retrovirus, negatively selected a significant fraction of polyclonal FV-specific CD4+ T cells and diminished the response to FV infection. Surprisingly, however, CD4+ T cell-mediated antiviral activity was fully preserved. Detailed repertoire analysis revealed that clones with low avidity for FV-deri

SUBMITTER: Young GR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3349761 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature