Abstract
Latent varicella zoster virus (VZV) can reactivate and cause zoster, the prevention of which relies upon cellular immunity to VZV. To assess temporal variation of VZV cell-mediated immunity in healthy naturally immune adults, we evaluated VZV-specific responder cell frequencies (RCF) longitudinally over 1 year in each of 25 adults. VZV-specific CD4+ T cells were detected (p < 0.003) and showed minimal variability in RCF. Additional analysis of VZV T cell RCF revealed differences between genders, with only males (p < 0.005) having detectable VZV-specific memory CD4+ T cell responses by this method. Taken together, results suggest that further studies regarding immunization of younger adults and females with the modified, high-potency live attenuated VZV vaccine may be warranted.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 5913-5918 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Vaccine |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 33-34 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 14 2006 |
Keywords
- Cell-mediated immunity
- Latency
- Responder cell frequency
- Varicella-zoster virus
- Zoster