Treatment with soluble interleukin-15Rα exacerbates intracellular parasitic infection by blocking the development of memory CD8+ T cell response

Interferon (IFN)-gamma-producing CD8(+) T cells are important for the successful resolution of the obligate intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii by preventing the reactivation or controlling a repeat infection. Previous reports from our laboratory have shown that exogenous interleukin (IL)-15 treatment augments the CD8(+) T cell response against the parasite. However, the role of endogenous IL-15 in the proliferation of activated/memory CD8(+) T cells during toxoplasma or any other infection is unknown. In this study, we treated T. gondii immune mice with soluble IL-15 receptor alpha (sIL-15Ralpha) to block the host endogenous IL-15. The treatment markedly reduced the ability of the immune animals to control a lethal infection. CD8(+) T cell activities in the sIL-15Ralpha-administered mice were severely reduced as determined by IFN-gamma release and target cell lysis assays. The loss of CD8(+) T cell immunity due to sIL-15Ralpha treatment was further demonstrated by adoptive transfer experiments. Naive recipients transferred with CD44(hi) activated/memory CD8(+) T cells and treated with sIL-15Ralpha failed to resist a lethal T. gondii infection. Moreover, sIL-15Ralpha treatment of the recipients blocked the ability of donor CD44(hi) activated/memory CD8(+) T cells to replicate in response to T. gondii challenge. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the important role of host IL-15 in the development of antigen-specific memory CD8(+) T cells against an intracellular infection.