CD8+ T cells in brain injury and neurodegeneration

Zhaolong Zhang; Zhongying Duan; Yu Cui

doi:10.3389/fncel.2023.1281763

CD8⁺ T cells in brain injury and neurodegeneration

Front Cell Neurosci. 2023 Nov 21:17:1281763. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2023.1281763. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zhaolong Zhang^#¹, Zhongying Duan^#^{2

3}, Yu Cui^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Interventional Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
² Institute of Neuroregeneration and Neurorehabilitation, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
³ Qingdao Medical College, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The interaction between the peripheral immune system and the brain is increasingly being recognized as an important layer of neuroimmune regulation and plays vital roles in brain homeostasis as well as neurological disorders. As an important population of T-cell lymphocytes, the roles of CD8⁺ T cells in infectious diseases and tumor immunity have been well established. Recently, increasing number of complex functions of CD8⁺ T cells in brain disorders have been revealed. However, an advanced summary and discussion of the functions and mechanisms of CD8⁺ T cells in brain injury and neurodegeneration are still lacking. Here, we described the differentiation and function of CD8⁺ T cells, reviewed the involvement of CD8⁺ T cells in the regulation of brain injury including stroke and traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), and discussed therapeutic prospects and future study goals. Understanding these processes will promote the investigation of T-cell immunity in brain disorders and provide new intervention strategies for the treatment of brain injury and neurodegeneration.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; CD8+ T cells; Parkinson’s disease; brain injury; ischemic stroke; neurodegeneration; traumatic brain injury.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82101380) and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR202102280316) to ZZ; Science and Technology Support Plan for Youth Innovation of Colleges and Universities of Shandong Province of China (2022KJ146) to YC.