Hierarchy of inhibitory receptor expression by Hepatitis B Virus (HBV)-specific CD8+ T cells in chronic HBV infection

Virus-specific CD8+ T cells are thought to play a crucial role in the immunobiology of HBV infection. In chronic HBV infection, up-regulation of several inhibitory signaling pathways by HBV-specific CD8+ T cells is thought to contribute to viral persistence. However, the relative contribution of the individual inhibitory pathways has not been addressed so far. In this study, we determined the coexpression of multiple inhibitory receptors (PD–1, 2B4, CD160, KLRG1 and Tim–3) ex vivo by HBV-specific CD8+ T cells from 17 patients (16 HBeAg neg., 1 HBeAg pos.) with significant HBV-specific T cell frequencies and comp…