How the immune system remembers viruses

Research group leader Veit Buchholz ( left ) and first author Simon Grassmann from the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene. Image: Susanne Dürr / TUM Immune response: memory T cells are formed earlier than previously thought - For a person to acquire immunity to a disease, T cells must develop into memory cells after contact with the pathogen. Until now, the number of cells that do this was believed to depend above all on the magnitude of the initial immune response. A team of researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now called this into question. When a virus enters the body, it is picked up by certain cells of the immune system. They transport the virus to the lymph nodes where they present its fragments, known as antigens, to CD8+ T cells responsible control of viral infections. Each of these cells carries a unique T cell receptor on the surface that can recognize certain antigens.