Chronic lymphocytic leukemia skews antigen-specific CD8 T cells leading to dysfunctional memory response

In a murine, adoptive transfer model of chronic lymphocytic leukemia we injected OT-I cells followed by infection with mCMV-OVA. On day 7 post-infection, OT-I cells from the spleen were FACS sorted and studied with ATAC sequencing and RNA sequencing. In additition to flow cytometry data demonstrating a skewing towards short-lived effector cells and a lower proportion of memory-precursor cells of OT-I cells from CLL mice compared to WT, we also found effector and memory genes epigenetically and transcriptionally altered. Overall design: Splenic OT-I cells from CLL mice vs splenic OT-I cells from WT mice on day 7 post-infection