Direct presentation is sufficient for an efficient anti-viral CD8 + T cell response

The extent to which direct- and cross-presentation (dp and cp) contribute to the priming of cd8+ t cell (tcd8+) responses to viruses is unclear mainly because of the difficulty in separating the two processes. hence,while cp in the absence of dp has been clearly demonstrated,induction of an anti-viral tcd8+ response that excludes cp has never been purposely shown. using vaccinia virus (vacv),which has been used as the vaccine to rid the world of smallpox and is proposed as a vector for many other vaccines,we show that dp is the main mechanism for the priming of an anti-viral tcd8+ response. these findings provide important insights to our understanding of how one of the most effective anti-viral vaccines induces immunity and should contribute to the development of novel vaccines. © 2010 xu et al.