Antagonistic variant virus prevents wild-type virus-induced lethal immunopathology.
J Exp Med
; 196(8): 1039-46, 2002 Oct 21.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-12391015
ABSTRACT
Altered peptide ligands (APLs) and their antagonistic or partial agonistic character-influencing T cell activation have mainly been studied in vitro Some studies have shown APLs as a viral escape mechanism from cytotoxic CD8(+) T cell responses in vivo. However, whether infection or superinfection with a virus displaying an antagonistic T cell epitope can alter virus-host relationships via inhibiting T cell-mediated immunopathology is unclear. Here, we evaluated a recently described CD4(+) T cell escape lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) variant that in vitro displayed antagonistic characteristics for the major histocompatibility complex class II-restricted mutated epitope. Mice transgenic for the immunodominant LCMV-specific T helper epitope that usually succumb to wild-type LCMV-induced immunopathology, survived if they were simultaneously coinfected with antagonistic variant but not with control virus. The results illustrate that a coinfecting APL-expressing virus can shift an immunopathological virus-host relationships in favor of host survival. This may play a role in poorly cytopathic long-lasting virus carrier states in humans.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes
/
Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
J Exp Med
Year:
2002
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Switzerland