The following article requires a subscription:



(Format: HTML, PDF)

: During chronic viral infection, virus-specific CD8 T cells become exhausted, exhibit poor effector function and lose memory potential 1,2,3,4. However, exhausted CD8 T cells can still contain viral replication in chronic infections 5,6,7,8,9, although the mechanism of this containment is largely unknown. Here we show that a subset of exhausted CD8 T cells expressing the chemokine receptor CXCR5 has a critical role in the control of viral replication in mice that were chronically infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). These CXCR5 CD8 T cells were able to migrate into B-cell follicles, expressed lower levels of inhibitory receptors and exhibited more potent cytotoxicity than the CXCR5 subset. Furthermore, we identified the Id2-E2A signalling axis as an important regulator of the generation of this subset. In patients with HIV, we also identified a virus-specific CXCR5 CD8 T-cell subset, and its number was inversely correlated with viral load. The CXCR5 subset showed greater therapeutic potential than the CXCR5 subset when adoptively transferred to chronically infected mice, and exhibited synergistic reduction of viral load when combined with anti-PD-L1 treatment. This study defines a unique subset of exhausted CD8 T cells that has a pivotal role in the control of viral replication during chronic viral infection.

(C) 2016 Nature Publishing Group