{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T14:10:09Z","timestamp":1790172609457,"version":"4.1.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"group-title":"Immunology","reference-count":43,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789689600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/about\/FAQ#license"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services","award":["AI142742"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AI142742"]}]},{"name":"National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services","award":["K08AI196260"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K08AI196260"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  T cells are major contributors to protective immunity against pathogens and cancers. Immune memory is a central feature of protective adaptive immunity, and mucosal barrier tissues are major sites of pathogen invasion. Yet, fundamental gaps remain in our knowledge of human T cell immune memory durability in mucosal barrier sites. Here, we employed minimally invasive nasal swab sampling to directly detect, and longitudinally assess, human antigen-specific T cells in two upper airway tissue sites (\u223c 900 samples) and peripheral blood. Antigen-specific memory CD8 and CD4 T cells were detected in upper airway tissue of\n                  <jats:underline>&gt;<\/jats:underline>\n                  95% of individuals. Both memory CD8 and CD4 T cells were sustained in both mucosal epithelial and mucosal lymphoid tissue over the course of 18+ months, with monthly sampling, and no clear evidence of decline. Virus-specific upper airway CD8 and CD4 T cells were predominantly resident memory T cells (T\n                  <jats:sub>RM<\/jats:sub>\n                  ) throughout the 18+ month period of observation. These findings can inform future T cell vaccines and therapeutics.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.09.15.751278","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,19]],"date-time":"2026-09-19T03:30:17Z","timestamp":1789788617000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Durability and diversity of human upper airway T cell memory"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7166-5195","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sydney I.","family":"Ramirez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Vaccine Innovation, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; La Jolla, CA, USA"},{"name":"Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego; La Jolla, CA, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5078-813X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Farhoud","family":"Faraji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Vaccine Innovation, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; La Jolla, CA, USA"},{"name":"Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6437-1092","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paul G.","family":"Lopez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Vaccine Innovation, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; La Jolla, CA, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-3373-1253","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lucas","family":"Garin-Ortega","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Vaccine Innovation, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; La Jolla, CA, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Natalie","family":"Hern","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Vaccine Innovation, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; La Jolla, CA, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Osirus","family":"Eisenman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Vaccine Innovation, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; 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Minneapolis, MN, United States"},{"name":"Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Minnesota; Minneapolis, MN, United States"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6484-6262","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shane","family":"Crotty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Vaccine Innovation, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; La Jolla, CA, USA"},{"name":"Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego; La Jolla, CA, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"813","DOI":"10.1016\/j.immuni.2026.02.019","article-title":"Immunological memory to vaccines","volume":"59","year":"2026","journal-title":"Immunity"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"309","DOI":"10.1038\/s41590-022-01395-9","article-title":"Tissue adaptation and clonal segregation of human memory T cells in barrier sites","volume":"24","year":"2023","journal-title":"Nat Immunol"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.celrep.2017.08.078"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1749","DOI":"10.1038\/s41590-026-02592-6","article-title":"Human lungs maintain tissue-resident memory T cells against a broad spectrum of pathogens","volume":"27","year":"2026","journal-title":"Nat Immunol"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"128944","DOI":"10.1016\/j.vaccine.2026.128944","article-title":"Conference report: airway mucosal sampling and immune analysis","volume":"88","year":"2026","journal-title":"Vaccine"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2895","DOI":"10.1016\/j.immuni.2024.10.003","article-title":"Maintenance and functional regulation of immune memory to COVID-19 vaccines in tissues","volume":"57","year":"2024","journal-title":"Immunity"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41577-024-01040-6"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-024-07748-8"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e186078","DOI":"10.1172\/jci.insight.186078","article-title":"Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines-2 (ACTIV-2)\/A5401 Study Team, Early antiviral CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are associated with upper airway clearance of SARS-CoV-2","volume":"9","year":"2024","journal-title":"JCI Insight"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"312","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-025-67017-8","article-title":"Pre-existing and early cellular immune factors correlate with functionally complete protection against primary controlled human SARS-CoV-2 infection","volume":"17","year":"2025","journal-title":"Nat Commun"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/sciimmunol.aam6970"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e20251793","DOI":"10.1084\/jem.20251793","article-title":"Nasal CD4+ tissue-resident memory T cells provide cross-protective immunity to influenza","volume":"223","year":"2026","journal-title":"J Exp Med"},{"key":"2026092306550801000_2026.09.15.751278v1.13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"S. 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