Innate Immune Responses to West Nile Virus Infection

Author(s):  
Alvaro Arjona ◽  
Erol Fikrig
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan D. Grubaugh ◽  
Aaron Massey ◽  
Katherine D. Shives ◽  
Mark D. Stenglein ◽  
Gregory D. Ebel ◽  
...  

Abstract Background.  West Nile virus (WNV) infection in humans can result in severe, acute encephalitis typically involving subcortical gray matter brain regions. West Nile virus replication within specific human brain regions from a human case of acute encephalitis has not been studied. Methods.  We describe a fatal case of WNV encephalitis in which we obtained tissue from specific brain regions at autopsy to evaluate viral-host interactions using next-generation sequencing and immunohistochemistry analysis. Results.  We found that WNV populations in the injured subcortical brain regions exhibited increased amino acid variation and increased expression of specific interferon genes compared with cortical tissues despite similar viral burden. Conclusions.  These observational, patient-based data suggest that neuronal injury and the strength of viral selection pressure may be associated with the level of the innate immune responses. Further studies in human and animal models evaluating the role of innate immune responses on injury patterns and viral selection pressure are needed.


mBio ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica B. Graham ◽  
Sunil Thomas ◽  
Jessica Swarts ◽  
Aimee A. McMillan ◽  
Martin T. Ferris ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging neuroinvasive flavivirus that now causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. The innate and adaptive immune responses to WNV infection have been well studied in C57BL/6J inbred mice, but this model lacks the variations in susceptibility, immunity, and outcome to WNV infection that are observed in humans, thus limiting its usefulness to understand the mechanisms of WNV infection and immunity dynamics. To build a model of WNV infection that captures human infection outcomes, we have used the Collaborative Cross (CC) mouse model. We show that this model, which recapitulates the genetic diversity of the human population, demonstrates diversity in susceptibility and outcomes of WNV infection observed in humans. Using multiple F1 crosses of CC mice, we identified a wide range of susceptibilities to infection, as demonstrated through differences in survival, clinical disease score, viral titer, and innate and adaptive immune responses in both peripheral tissues and the central nervous system. Additionally, we examined the Oas1b alleles in the CC mice and confirmed the previous finding that Oas1b plays a role in susceptibility to WNV; however, even within a given Oas1b allele status, we identified a wide range of strain-specific WNV-associated phenotypes. These results confirmed that the CC model is effective for identifying a repertoire of host genes involved in WNV resistance and susceptibility. The CC effectively models a wide range of WNV clinical, virologic, and immune phenotypes, thus overcoming the limitations of the traditional C57BL/6J model, allowing genetic and mechanistic studies of WNV infection and immunity in differently susceptible populations. IMPORTANCE Mouse models of West Nile virus infection have revealed important details regarding the innate and adaptive immune responses to this emerging viral infection. However, traditional mouse models lack the genetic diversity present in human populations and therefore limit our ability to study various disease outcomes and immunologic mechanisms subsequent to West Nile virus infection. In this study, we used the Collaborative Cross mouse model to more effectively model the wide range of clinical, virologic, and immune phenotypes present upon West Nile virus infection in humans.


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1648-1658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Arjona ◽  
Penghua Wang ◽  
Ruth R. Montgomery ◽  
Erol Fikrig

2007 ◽  
Vol 179 (12) ◽  
pp. 8403-8409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Arjona ◽  
Michel Ledizet ◽  
Karen Anthony ◽  
Nathalie Bonafé ◽  
Yorgo Modis ◽  
...  

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