Influenza epitope-specific CD8 T cell avidity, but not cytokine polyfunctionality, can be determined by tcrβ clonotype

Abstract

Cytokine polyfunctionality has recently emerged as a correlate of effective CTL immunity to viruses and tumors. Although the determinants of polyfunctionality remain unclear, there are published instances of a link between the productionof multiple effector molecules and the peptide plus MHC class I molecule avidity of T cell populations. Influenza A virus infection of C57BL/6J mice induces CTL populations specific for multiple viral epitopes, each with varying proportions of monofunctional (IFN-γ+ only) or polyfunctional (IFN-γ+TNF-α+IL-2+) CTLs. In this study, we probe the link between TCR avidity and polyfunctionality for two dominant influenza epitopes (DbNP366 and D bPA224) by sequencin..