Abstract:
Allogeneic and autologous transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCT) are being routinely
used to treat patients with leukemia and lymphoma. Due to the required immunosuppression after
stem cell transplantation, infection and reactivation by viruses are life-threatening complications.
In recent years, adoptive transfer using virus-specific T cells (VSTs) has emerged as alternative to
conventional therapies. Since vitamins are described to influence the immune system and its
cellular components, the aim of this study was to examine whether vitamins modulate VST
function and thereby enable an improvement of therapy. For that, we investigated the impact of
vitamin C and D on the functionality of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific T cells isolated from
CMV-seropositive healthy donors. We were able to show that vitamin C increases the expansion
and activation state of CMV-specific T cells, and an increased influence of vitamin C was observed
on cells isolated from male donors and donors above 40 years of age. A higher frequency of the
terminally differentiated effector memory CD8+ T-cell population in these donors indicates a
connection between these cells and the enhanced response to vitamin C. Thus, here we provide
insights into the impact of vitamin C on cytotoxic T cells as well as possible additional selection
criteria and strategies to improve VST functionality
