The impact of IL-4 on the CD8 T cell response to pathogens

描述（由申请人提供）：细胞因子IL-4在驱动过敏性/哮喘CD4 T细胞反应中的作用已被充分研究，但其对CD8 T细胞的影响尚不清楚。基于已发表的和初步的数据，我们提出IL-4在支持CD8 T细胞对病原体的反应中起着关键和意想不到的作用。这些发现将被进一步研究，以确定IL-4反应在CD8 T细胞反应中的确切作用，并进一步的工作将测试IL-4细胞因子治疗可用于增强CD8 T细胞对疟疾寄生虫的保护性免疫的新概念。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The cytokine IL-4 is well studied for its role in driving allergic/asthmatic CD4 T cell responses: However its impact on CD8 T cells is much less clear. Building on published and preliminary data, we propose that IL-4 plays a critical and unexpected role in supporting the CD8 T cell response to pathogens. These findings will be investigated further to define the exact role of IL-4 responsiveness in the CD8 T cell response, and additional work will test the novel concept that IL-4 cytokine therapy could be used to enhance CD8 T cell protective immunity against malarial parasites. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Many infections are controlled by "killer" T lymphocytes (CTL), and there is a pressing need to improve vaccines that produce these cells. Here we look at an unexpected and interesting role for a serum protein called IL-4 which, based on our preliminary data, is critical to achieve a strong CTL response against infection. We test the role of IL-4 in the CTL responses against two pathogens (Listeria bacteria and malaria parasites) to establish what IL-4 does in controlling CTL responses (Aim 1) and test how this protein can be used to enhance CTL activity in order to prevent malarial disease.