TCR repertoire of effector CCR7-CD38+ cells accumulating during experimental infection with Typhoidal Salmonella

In order to characterize pathogen specific T cell responses against Salmonella volunteers challenged with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) or Salmonella Paratyphi A (S. Paratyphi). we used mass cytometry, to identify effector CD4+ T cells circulating during infection. We identified a population of CCR7-CD38+ cells accumulating during infection, and via unbiased single cell cloning and expansion we demonstrated that these CCR7-CD38+ cells are enriched in Salmonella specific T cells. In this experiment we performed TCR repertoire analysis of CCR7-CD38+ and CCR7-CD38- cells to determine the clonality of CCR7-CD38+ cells, the overlap between the repertoire of CCR7-CD38+ cells and of non-activated effector CCR7-CD38- cells, and to identify within CCR7-CD38+ and CCR7-CD38- cells the presence of the CDR3b TCR sequence of the pathogen specific T cell clones isolated from CCR7-CD38+ cells Analysis of the TCR repertoire of CCR7-CD38+ and CCR7-CD38+ CD4 T cells isolated from frozen PBMC after diagnosis of enteric fever in one volunteer challenged with Salmonella Typhi and one challenged with Salmonella Paratyphi A