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Why do virologists hold "cytotoxic T cells" (CTL) in near equal reverence to antiviral antibodies in immunity to viruses? For damn good reason (thread)...
CTL specifically recognize viral invaders by mechanism totally distinct from antibodies. They bust open and kill infected cells, releasing poorly-formed, incomplete viral particles that soon degrade...
They are quite able to immunize, but are rather hard to study, enumerate, understand c/w antibodies, for elaborate technical reasons. But they exist, and work...
Why mention them? 3 reasons.
*We are starting to see first, albeit soft evidence that T cells account for some protection from some vaccines
*We rarely talk about their contributions cuz they're hard to study and compare
*Only SOME vaccines elicit CTL...
*We are starting to see first, albeit soft evidence that T cells account for some protection from some vaccines
*We rarely talk about their contributions cuz they're hard to study and compare
*Only SOME vaccines elicit CTL...
The best vaccines for eliciting CTL are those that use adenovirus vectors: Oxford/AZed, Sputnik V, J&J.
Followed by mRNA vaccines. Pfizer, Moderna.
Subunit vaxes like Novavax don't elicit...
Followed by mRNA vaccines. Pfizer, Moderna.
Subunit vaxes like Novavax don't elicit...
We won't know for some time these key questions:
*Which arm(s) of our immune systems actually confer protection
*How long each kind of immunity lasts
Til we know these, don't count out CTL. Even if we're not talking about it.
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*Which arm(s) of our immune systems actually confer protection
*How long each kind of immunity lasts
Til we know these, don't count out CTL. Even if we're not talking about it.
END
