Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
United Press International - October 19, 2007
Although the experiments were conducted in mice, the problem of T-cell exhaustion has also been identified in HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections in humans, as well as in some cancers, lead author E. John Wherry of The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia said.
Using a technique called gene-expression profiling, Wherry and colleagues identified 490 genes whose activity in T cells is altered during a chronic viral infection.
The study, published in the journal Immunity, found that at the end of two months, T cells contending with a chronic infection were sluggish metabolically, and immunologically unresponsive to stimulus.
"We knew that T cells responding to chronic infections become progressively compromised in many of their functional properties," Wherry said in a statement. "Put simply, the T cells become exhausted as time passes."
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