Gearing up for battle: Harnessing adaptive T cell immunity against gram-negative pneumonia

Abstract

Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and Gram-negative bacteria are a major cause of severe pneumonia. Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, the rise of multidrug-resistant organisms and hypervirulent strains demonstrates that there will continue to be challenges with traditional treatment strategies using antibiotics. Hence, an alternative approach is to focus on the disease tolerance components that mediate immune resistance and enhance tissue resilience. Adaptive immunity plays a pivotal role in modulating these processes, thus affecting the incidence and severity of pneumonia. In this review, we focus on the adaptive T cell responses to pneumonia induced by Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii. We highlight key factors in these responses that have potential for therapeutic targeting, as well as the gaps in current knowledge to be focused on in future work.

A distinctive evolution of alveolar T cell responses is associated with clinical outcomes in unvaccinated patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia

“…Successful pulmonary immune responses to acute infection coordinate innate and adaptive immune events that lead to host recovery following severe pneumonia (56). In this study, we performed serial sampling of the alveolar spaces of patients with severe pneumonia to test the null hypothesis that dynamic pulmonary T cell responses are similar between causes of pneumonia (57).…”

Differential roles of regulatory T cells in acute respiratory infections

“…The COVID-19 pandemic, generations of influenza epidemics and pandemics, and the rise of multidrug-resistant bacterial pneumonia have increased awareness of the burden of acute respiratory infections (1,2). Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, pneumonia due to a broad spectrum of viral and bacterial pathogens caused almost 80% of deaths from infection in the United States (3)(4)(5).…”

Risk Factors for 30-Day Mortality in Patients with Bacteremic Pneumonia Caused by Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae: A Retrospective Study

“…Studies have shown that the mortality rate of Gram-negative bacterial pneumonia is still significant even when the optimal antibiotic therapy is provided. 9 Therefore, comprehensive management targeting both patients and pathogens is crucial. This implies that it is necessary to pay attention to the clinical characteristics and risk factors of bacteremic pneumonia caused by these bacteria.…”