Immune responses to viral antigens in man and their relevance to vaccine development: memorandum from a WHO meeting

A meeting of an informal working group on immune responses to viral antigens was convened in Amsterdam on 15-18 November 1982 to discuss recent developments in this field and to formulate proposals for international collaborative studies relevant to the needs of the WHO Programme on Vaccine Development. The meeting concluded that the time was ripe for collaborative studies on a wide range of aspects of the immune responses to viral antigens in man. Areas for collaborative effort were defined. These included (a) the role of virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in virus clearance following infection, (b) correlation of changes in natural killer cells and virus replication, virus virulence, and induction of cytotoxic T lymphocyte, (c) induction of interferons and other mediators of immune responses, and (d) role of individual viral antigens in immune responses. This Memorandum summarizes the discussions and recommendations of the group.