Immunological exhaustion: How to make a disparate concept operational?

Hannah Kaminski; Maël Lemoine; Thomas Pradeu

doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1009892

Immunological exhaustion: How to make a disparate concept operational?

PLoS Pathog. 2021 Sep 23;17(9):e1009892. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009892. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Authors

Hannah Kaminski¹, Maël Lemoine¹, Thomas Pradeu¹

Affiliation

¹ ImmunoConcept, CNRS & University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.

Abstract

In this essay, we show that 3 distinct approaches to immunological exhaustion coexist and that they only partially overlap, generating potential misunderstandings. Exploring cases ranging from viral infections to cancer, we propose that it is crucial, for experimental and therapeutic purposes, to clarify these approaches and their interconnections so as to make the concept of exhaustion genuinely operational.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Humans
Immune System Phenomena*
T-Lymphocytes / immunology*

Grants and funding

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme - grant agreement n° 637647 – IDEM (TP). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.