Tissue-resident T cells patrol liver and lung, shaping HBV immunity and inhaled vaccine design
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Mala Maini's expert commentary, published 20 October 2026, examines how tissue-resident T cells carry out immune surveillance in the liver and lung. The discussion covers their role in hepatitis B virus infection, their interactions with natural killer cells, and the implications for inhaled mucosal vaccines that target these barrier organs. The talk lays out the current mechanistic picture of how resident T cell populations are maintained in tissues and how they coordinate with other immune components during chronic viral infection. No trial results or regulatory decisions are attached to this coverage; it is a single analytical overview, and the open questions it raises, around translating mucosal and tissue-targeting strategies into clinical benefit, remain unresolved.
Written by a model from the reports · updated 3 hours ago
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- YouTubeTissue-Resident T Cells in Liver and Lung Immune Surveillance: HBV, NK Interactions and Inhaled Mucosal Vaccines (Mala Maini)
Using liver transplant/surgical samples with paired blood, Mala Maini's group found intrahepatic tissue-resident T cell numbers correlate negatively with viral control in HBV patients, suggesting a sentinel protective role, with long-term clonal persistence validated via HLA-mismatched transplants. In a chronic HBV therapeutic vaccine model, intrahepatic NK cells constitutively upregulate PD-L1, and blocking PD-L1 with antibodies expands HBV-specific T cells in mice and patient samples. With Baletti/Stauss, they are developing TCR-redirected T cells against HBV envelope epitopes, also expressed in HBV-related liver cancer, for adoptive cell therapy. They propose inhaled vaccines targeting respiratory mucosal tissue-resident T cells for broad cross-protection against future variants or other animal coronaviruses, and stress that blood draws alone cannot capture tissue immunity.
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