Pharmacologic induction of CD8+ T cell memory: better living through chemistry

The generation of a robust population of memory T cells is critical for effective vaccine and cell-based therapies to prevent and treat infectious diseases and cancer. A series of recent papers have established a new, cell-intrinsic approach in which small molecules target key metabolic and developmental pathways to enhance the formation and maintenance of highly functional CD8(+) memory T cells. These findings raise the exciting new possibility of using small molecules, many of which are already approved for human use, for the pharmacologic induction of immunologic memory.