Induction and maintenance of protective CD8+ T cells against malaria liver stages: implications for vaccine development

CD8⁺ T cells against malaria liver stages represent a major protective immune mechanism against infection. Following induction in the peripheral lymph nodes by dendritic cells (DCs), these CD8⁺ T cells migrate to the liver and eliminate parasite infected hepatocytes. The processing and presentation of sporozoite antigen requires TAP mediated transport of major histocompatibility complex class I epitopes to the endoplasmic reticulum. Importantly, in DCs this process is also dependent on endosome-mediated cross presentation while this mechanism is not required for epitope presentation on hepatocytes. Protective CD8⁺ T cell responses are strongly dependent on the presence of CD4⁺ T cells and the capacity of sporozoite antigen to persist for a prolonged period of time. While human trials with subunit vaccines capable of inducing antibodies and CD4⁺ T cell responses have yielded encouraging results, an effective anti-malaria vaccine will likely require vaccine constructs designed to induce protective CD8⁺ T cells against malaria liver stages.