Model of CD8⁺ T-cell responses to HHV-8 in different clinical situations: asymptomatic HHV-8 carriage, KS, and MCD. A model based on the experimental findings of the present study and previous published results²⁵  is proposed. In peripheral blood, both AC and MCD status are associated with a polyfunctional HHV-8–specific CD8⁺ T-cell response, whereas this response lacks during KS. Cells in MCD tend to be more highly differentiated than in AC and related to high HHV-8 viral loads (*). As in other chronic viral infections, immune protection against HHV-8 seems to be conferred by sufficient magnitude of early or intermediate effector memory antiviral CD8⁺ T cells. On the contrary, polyfunctional HHV-8–specific CD8⁺ (black dots) T cells are not correlates of protection against MCD.