Influenza A Virus Infection in Pigs Attracts Multifunctional and Cross-Reactive T Cells to the Lung

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Pigs not only are a suitable large-animal model for human influenza virus infection and vaccine development but also play a central role in the emergence of new pandemic strains. Although promising candidate universal vaccines are tested in pigs and local T cells are the major correlate of heterologous control, detailed and targeted analyses of T-cell responses at the site of infection are scarce. With the present study, we provide the first detailed characterization of magnitude, kinetics, and phenotype of specific T cells recruited to the lungs of influenza virus-infected pigs, and we could demonstrate multifunctionality, cross-reactivity, and memory formation of these cells. This, and ensuing work in the pig, will strengthen the position of this species as a large-animal model for human influenza virus infection and will immediately benefit vaccine development for improved control of influenza virus infections in pigs.