ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Molecular Viral Pathogenesis
This article is part of the Research TopicLiver Diseases from Viral InfectionView all 3 articles
Autophagic Regulation of CD8+ T Cell Metabolic Reprogramming Defines Acute and Latent Phases of Cytomegalovirus Infection In Vivo
Provisionally accepted
- 1The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 2Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Affiliated Renji Hospital, Shanghai, China
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Understanding the immunoregulatory mechanism during cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection may help to combat CMV reactivation in immunocompromised or immunosuppressed individuals. Here we developed a CMV infection model in immunocompetent Sprague Dawley (SD) rats with Priscott strain and explored the cross-talk between autophagic dynamics and metabolism alterations in CD8+ T cells post infection. We previously found that primary CMV infection induced a remarkable increase of CD8+ T cells which reached the peak around week 3 and returned to pre-inoculation status since week 6 post viral infection. In this study, our results demonstrated that the autophagic activity of CD8+ T was augmented at week 3 while decreased at week 6, which was closely associated with the up- (week 3 and 4) or down-regulation (since week 6) of metabolic markers ENTPD1 and SLC27A2. Furthermore, the in vitro study showed that the levels of these metabolic markers in rat splenocytes were modulated by autophagy inhibitors and enhancers. Our study indicated that the dynamic alterations of autophagy exerted a critical role in regulating the metabolic adaptation of CD8+ T cells during CMV infection process, and provides an ideal animal model for further research on the pathological mechanisms based on CMV latency.
Keywords: Cytomegalovirus, CD8+ T cells, Autophagic dynamics, Metabolism, sprague-dawley rats
Received: 25 Jul 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, LIU, Yeung, Liu, NG and Man. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kwan Man
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