Advances in influenza virus cross-reactive memory T cells

Abstract:

Influenza virus is one of the most important viruses that threaten human health for a long time. The inactivated influenza vaccine mainly produces strain-specific antibodies against the viral hemagglutinin. When the newly emerging influenza virus strain does not match the vaccine strain, the effectiveness of the vaccine will be greatly reduced. Due to the continuous emergence of antigenic drift and mutation of seasonal influenza viruses, people urgently need to find a wider range of protection methods. Previous studies show the importance of cellular immunity, especially the pre-existing memory T cells. Pre-existing memory T cells which target and recognize the conserved proteins inside influenza viruses can cross-react with influenza viruses of multiple subtypes, providing a certain degree of protection to influenza virus infections of the same subtypes or different subtypes. This article reviews the research progress of influenza virus cross-reactive memory T cells and some guiding applications of cross-reactive memory T cells in influenza prevention, aiming to provide a new reference for influenza prevention and vaccine development.