Multiple layers of CD80/86-dependent costimulatory activity regulate primary, memory, and secondary lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus-specific T cell immunity.

The lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) system constitutes one of the most widely used models for the study of infectious disease and the regulation of virus-specific T cell immunity. However, with respect to the activity of costimulatory and associated regulatory pathways, LCMV-specific T cell responses have long been regarded as relatively independent and thus distinct from the regulation of T cell immunity directed against many other viral pathogens. Here, we have reevaluated the contribution of CD28-CD80/86 costimulation in the LCMV system by use of CD80/86-deficient mice, and our results demonstrate that a disruption of CD28-CD80/86 signaling compromises the magnitude, phenotype, and/or functionality of LCMV-specific CD8(+) and/or CD4(+) T cell populations in all stages of the T cell response. Notably, a profound inhibition of secondary T cell immunity in LCMV-immune CD80/86-deficient mice emerged as a composite of both defective memory T cell development and a specific requirement for CD80 but not CD86 in the recall response, while a related experimental scenario of CD28-dependent yet CD80/86-independent secondary CD8(+) T cell immunity suggests the existence of a CD28 ligand other than CD80/86. Furthermore, we provide evidence that regulatory T cells (T(REG)s), the homeostasis of which is altered in CD80/86(-/-) mice, contribute to restrained LCMV-specific CD8(+) T cell responses in the presence of CD80/86. Our observations can therefore provide a more coherent perspective on CD28-CD80/86 costimulation in antiviral T cell immunity that positions the LCMV system within a shared context of multiple defects that virus-specific T cells acquire in the absence of CD28-CD80/86 costimulation.