Persistence of virus-specific immune responses in the central nervous system of mice after West Nile virus infection

BMC Immunology

Research Article

Sharone Green¹  Valerie L Demarest²  Susan J Wong³  Barbara S Stewart³  Kristen A Bernard⁴ 

[1] Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA;Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY, USA;Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY, USA;Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA;Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY, USA;Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA;Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA;

关键词: West Nile Virus;    West Nile Virus Infection;    Mouse Hepatitis Virus;    Antibody Secreting Cell;    West Nile Fever;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2172-12-6

 received in 2010-06-09, accepted in 2011-01-20,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWest Nile virus (WNV) persists in humans and several animal models. We previously demonstrated that WNV persists in the central nervous system (CNS) of mice for up to 6 months post-inoculation. We hypothesized that the CNS immune response is ineffective in clearing the virus.ResultsImmunocompetent, adult mice were inoculated subcutaneously with WNV, and the CNS immune response was examined at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks post-inoculation (wpi). Characterization of lymphocyte phenotypes in the CNS revealed elevation of CD19+ B cells for 4 wpi, CD138 plasma cells at 12 wpi, and CD4+ and CD8+ T cells for at least 12 wpi. T cells recruited to the brain were activated, and regulatory T cells (Tregs) were present for at least 12 wpi. WNV-specific antibody secreting cells were detected in the brain from 2 to 16 wpi, and virus-specific CD8+ T cells directed against an immunodominant WNV epitope were detected in the brain from 1 to 16 wpi. Furthermore, these WNV-specific immune responses occurred in mice with and without acute clinical disease.ConclusionsVirus-specific immune cells persist in the CNS of mice after WNV infection for up to 16 wpi.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Stewart et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.