Journal article

Long lived liver-resident memory T cells of biased specificities for abundant sporozoite antigens drive malaria protection by radiation-attenuated sporozoite vaccination

MN de Menezes, Z Ge, A Cozijnsen, S Gras, P Bertolino, I Caminschi, MH Lahoud, K Yui, GI McFadden, L Beattie, WR Heath, D Fernandez-Ruiz

PLoS Pathogens | Public Library of Science (PLoS) | Published : 2025

Abstract

Vaccination with radiation-attenuated sporozoites (RAS) can provide highly effective protection against malaria in both humans and mice. To extend understanding of malaria immunity and inform the development of future vaccines, we studied the protective response elicited by this vaccine in C57BL/6 mice. We reveal that successive doses of Plasmodium berghei RAS favour the generation of liver CD8+ tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM cells) over circulating memory cells and markedly enhance their longevity. Importantly, RAS immunisation strongly skews the composition of the liver CD8+ TRM compartment towards cells specific for abundant sporozoite antigens, such as thrombospondin-related adhesiv..

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