Evaluation of Zika Virus-specific T-cell Responses in Immunoprivileged Organs of Infected Ifnar1(-/-) Mice

Zhang, Yongli; Zhang, Hangjie; Ma, Wenqiang; Liu, Kefang; Zhao, Min; Zhao, Yingze; Lu, Xuancheng; Zhang, Fuping; Li, Xiangdong; Gao, George F.; Liu, William J.

To analyze the antigen-specific murine CD8 + T-cell responses in the immunoprivileged organs, we prepared H-2D b -E 294-302 tetramer and detected the CD8 + T cells by flow cytometry. Tetramers are a powerful tool to detect antigen-specific T cells. Here, three types of fluorochromeconjugated streptavidin (APC, PE, and BV421) were generated. Although there are no statistically significant differences in the APC-, BV421-, and PE-labeled tetramers for detecting antigen-specific T cells, PE-labeled pMHC-I tetramers yielded the best results. Hence, the PE-labeled tetramer was used throughout this study. Interestingly, based on the PE-labeled H-2D specific T cells in both the brain and testes, which indicate the migration ability of the virus-specific T cells from the blood to immunoprivileged organs.