Giacomo Oliveira, Eliana Ruggiero, Maria Teresa Lupo Stanghellini, Nicoletta Cieri, Mattia D'Agostino, Mattio D'Agostino, Raffaele Fronza, Christina Lulay, Francesca Dionisio, Sara Mastaglio, Raffaella Greco, Jacopo Peccatori, Alessandro Aiuti, Alessandro Ambrosi, Luca Biasco, Attilio Bondanza, Antonio Lambiase, Catia Traversari, Luca Vago, Christof von Kalle, Manfred Schmidt, Claudio Bordignon, Fabio Ciceri, Chiara Bonini
Long-lasting immune protection from pathogens and cancer requires the generation of memory T cells able to survive long-term. To unravel the immunological requirements for long-term persistence of human memory T cells, we characterized and traced, over several years, T lymphocytes genetically modified to express the thymidine kinase (TK) suicide gene that were infused in 10 patients after haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). At 2 to 14 years after infusion and in the presence of a broad and resting immune system, we could still detect effectors/effector memory (TEM/EFF), central memory (TCM), and stem memory (TSCM) TK(+) cells, circulating at low but stable levels in all patients...
December 9, 2015: Science Translational Medicine