Clonally expanded γδ T cells protect against Staphylococcus aureus skin reinfection

Carly A Dillen, Bret L Pinsker, Alina I Marusina, Alexander A Merleev, Orly N Farber, Haiyun Liu, Nathan K Archer, Da B Lee, Yu Wang, Roger V Ortines, Steven K Lee, Mark C Marchitto, Shuting S Cai, Alyssa G Ashbaugh, Larissa S May, Steven M Holland, Alexandra F Freeman, Loren G Miller, Michael R Yeaman, Scott I Simon, Joshua D Milner, Emanual Maverakis, Lloyd S Miller

The mechanisms that mediate durable protection against Staphylococcus aureus skin reinfections are unclear, as recurrences are common despite high antibody titers and memory T cells. Here, we developed a mouse model of S. aureus skin reinfection to investigate protective memory responses. In contrast with WT mice, IL-1β-deficient mice exhibited poor neutrophil recruitment and bacterial clearance during primary infection that was rescued during secondary S. aureus challenge. The γδ T cells from skin-draining LNs utilized compensatory T cell-intrinsic TLR2/MyD88 signaling to mediate rescue by trafficking and producing TNF and IFN-γ, which restored neutrophil recruitment and promoted bacterial clearance. RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) of the LNs revealed a clonotypic S. aureus-induced γδ T cell expansion with a complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) aa sequence identical to that of invariant Vγ5+ dendritic epidermal T cells. However, this T cell receptor γ (TRG) aa sequence of the dominant CDR3 sequence was generated from multiple gene rearrangements of TRGV5 and TRGV6, indicating clonotypic expansion. TNF- and IFN-γ-producing γδ T cells were also expanded in peripheral blood of IRAK4-deficient humans no longer predisposed to S. aureus skin infections. Thus, clonally expanded γδ T cells represent a mechanism for long-lasting immunity against recurrent S. aureus skin infections.