T-Cell Therapy: Options for Infectious Diseases

The emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis is challenging tuberculosis control worldwide. In the absence of an effective vaccine to prevent primary infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and tuberculosis disease, host-directed therapies may offer therapeutic options, particularly for patients with multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis where prognosis is often limited. CD8(+) and CD4(+) T cells mediate antigen-specific adaptive cellular immune responses. Their use in precision immunotherapy in clinical conditions, especially in treating cancer as well as for prevention of life-threatening viral infections in allogeneic transplant recipients, demonstrated safety and clinical efficacy. We review key achievements in T-cell therapy, including the use of recombinant immune recognition molecules (eg, T-cell receptors and CD19 chimeric antigen receptors), and discuss its potential in the clinical management of patients with drug-resistant and refractory tuberculosis failing conventional therapy.