In contrast to their pathogenicity in ECM, CD8+ T cells are needed for protection against a wide spectrum of neurological infections including West Nile virus (Klein et al, 2005; Brien et al, 2007), human simplex virus‐1 (Lang & Nikolich‐Zugich, 2005), cytomegalovirus (Bantug et al, 2008), enterovirus 71 (Lin et al, 2009), Toxoplasma gondii (Guiton et al, 2009), neuroborreliosis (Jacobsen et al, 2003), and central nervous system listeriosis (Schluter et al, 1995; Hayashi et al, 2009). Here, CD8A is linked to Lyme disease.