Lack of Sprouty 1 and 2 enhances survival of effector CD8 + T cells and yields more protective memory cells

Significance Sprouty (Spry) molecules are known regulators of the Erk signaling pathway. We determined how the absence of Spry 1 and Spry 2 affects the formation and function of effector and memory CD8 + T cells. We found that absence of Spry1/2 enhances the survival of effector CD8 + T cells and results in the formation of more polyfunctional memory cells. As increased numbers of memory CD8 + T cells strongly correlate with enhanced protection against tumors and pathogenic infections, our findings identify the Spry1 and Spry2 loci as attractive targets for increasing the number, survival, and function of antigen-specific memory CD8 + T cells. This may provide an opportunity for better future engineering of T cells against tumors and chronic viral infections.