Differing HLA types influence inhibitory receptor signalling in CMV-specific CD8+ T cells

The dysregulated immune response to CMV constitutes a major force driving T cell immunosenescence and growing evidence suggests that it is not a benign virus in old age. We show here that the PD-1/L pathway defines a reversible defect in CMV specific CD8+ T cell proliferative responses in both young and old individuals. More specifically, highly differentiated CD45RA+CD27− CMV-specific CD8+ T cells exhibit a proliferative deficit compared their central and effector memory counterparts, which is reversed following PD-L blockade. However, we also report that HLA-B∗07/TPR specific CD8+ T cells express higher levels of PD-1 than HLA-A∗02/NLV specific cells and HLA-A∗02 individuals show a higher proliferative response to PD-L blockade, than HLA-B∗07 individuals, which we postulate may be due to the differing functional avidities for these two CMV-specific CD8+ T cells populations. Nevertheless data presented here demonstrate that CMV-specific CD8+ T cells can be functionally enhanced by perturbation of the PD-1/L signalling pathway, whose manipulation may provide a therapeutic modality to combat age-associated immune decline.