Distinct roles of NK cells in viral immunity during different phases of acute Friend retrovirus infection

Retrovirology

Kathrin Gibbert¹  Ulf Dittmer¹  Sandra Francois¹  Elisabeth Littwitz¹ 

[1] Institute for Virology of the University Hospital in Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

关键词: Viral control;    Regulatory function;    Effector T cells;    Friend retrovirus;    NK cells;   

Others  :  806609
DOI  :  10.1186/1742-4690-10-127

 received in 2013-05-13, accepted in 2013-10-29,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

In many virus infections natural killer (NK) cells are critical for the rapid containment of virus replication. Polymorphisms in NK cell receptors as well as viral escape from NK cell responses are associated with pathogenesis and viral loads in HIV-infected individuals, emphasizing their importance in retroviral immunity. In contrast, NK cells of LCMV-infected mice dampened virus-specific T cell responses resulting in impaired virus control. Thus, the exact role of NK cells during different phases of viral infections remains elusive. In this study we characterized the NK cell response at different time points of an acute retroviral infection by using the Friend retrovirus (FV) mouse model.

Findings

Depletion of NK1.1⁺ cells during the initial phase of FV infection (3 to 4 days post infection) resulted in increased viral loads, which correlated with enhanced target cell killing and elevated NK cell effector functions. At days 7 to 15 post infection, NK and NKT cells did not contribute to anti-retroviral immunity. In the transition phase between acute and chronic infection (30 days post infection), NK and NKT cells exhibited an inhibitory role and their depletion resulted in reduced viral loads and significantly improved FV-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate an opposed activity of NK cells during retroviral infection. They were protective in the initial phase of infection, when adaptive T cell responses were not yet detectable, but were dispensable for viral immunity after T cell expansion. At later time points they exhibited regulatory functions in inhibiting virus-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Littwitz et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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