Influenza a infection enhances cross-priming of CD8 T cells to cell-associated antigens in a TLR7-and type I IFN-dependent fashion

Abstract

The initiation of antitumor immunity relies on dendritic cells (DCs) to cross-present cell-associated tumor Ag to CD8+ T cells (T CD8+) due to a lack of costimulatory molecules on tumor cells. Innate danger signals have been demonstrated to enhance crosspriming of T CD8+ to soluble as well as virally encoded Ags; however, their effect on enhancing TCD8+ cross-priming to cell genomeencoded Ags remains unknown. Furthermore, influenza A virus (IAV) has not been shown to enhance antitumor immunity. Using influenza-infected allogeneic cell lines, we show in this study that TCD8+ responses to cell-associated Ags can be dramatically enhanced due to enhanced TCD8+ expansion. This enhanced cross-prim..