Beyond adjuvants: Immunomodulation strategies to enhance T cell immunity

Engagement of CD8T cells is a crucial aspect of immune responses to pathogens and in tumor surveillance. Nonetheless most vaccination strategies with common adjuvants fail to elicit long-term memory CD8T cells. Increased knowledge on the cellular and molecular requirements for CD8T cell activation has unveiled new opportunities to directly modulate CD8T cells to generate optimal responses. During chronic infections and cancer, immunomodulation strategies to enhance T cell responses may be particularly necessary to overcome the immunosuppressive microenvironment. In this review we will discuss blockade of inhibitory receptors; interleukin-2 administration; regulatory T cell modulation; and targeting of mTOR, as means to enhance CD8T cell immunity.