Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus

Author(s):  
Daniel J. Bonthius

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), an arenavirus, is a prevalent pathogen and an important and underrecognized cause of neurologic birth defects. LCMV utilizes rodents as its principal reservoir. Rodents that acquire the virus transplacentally often remain asymptomatic because congenital infection provides immunological tolerance for the virus. Humans typically acquire LCMV by direct contact with fomites contaminated with infectious virus, from rodents, or by inhalation of aerosolized virus. Congenital LCMV infection occurs when a woman acquires the virus during pregnancy. The virus is passed to the fetus transplacentally, presumably during maternal viremia. Published reports of LCMV infection during pregnancy make it clear that LCMV can be a severe neuroteratogen. Prospective epidemiological or clinical studies of congenital LCMV infection are needed to gain more knowledge about the incidence and spectrum of LCMV-induced teratogenicity. The clinical presentation of congenital LCMV is reviewed, along with recommendations for diagnostic studies and information about long-term prognosis.

1976 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. H. Skinner ◽  
E. H. Knight ◽  
L. S. Buckley

SUMMARYExposure of weaned hamsters to an environment contaminated with LCM virus shed by tolerantly infected mice led to short subclinical infections. If infection occurred in early pregnancy, the young appeared normal at birth but their tissues were highly infective. For two to three months their bites and urine were also highly infective. A viraemia did not persist long enough for successive vertical transmissions of the infection to be likely. However, the viruria persisted in most prenatally infected hamsters for at least eight months and under simulated field conditions was a potent virus source for contact infections, leading to further generations of prenatally infected young. In the absence of the natural reservoir host, such long-term carriers could have been a major factor in causing the build-up of infection in colonies of hamsters which, when purchased as household pets, led to a recent spate of human clinical infections in Germany and the U.S.A.


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 626-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Meritet ◽  
A. Krivine ◽  
F. Lewin ◽  
M. H. Poissonnier ◽  
R. Poizat ◽  
...  

1977 ◽  
Vol 32 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1026-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mircea Popescu ◽  
Jürgen Löhler ◽  
Fritz Lehmann-Grube

Abstract During persistent infection of mice with the lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) virus approximately 3% of leukocytes were found to contain viral antigen and to produce infectious virus. Morphologically, infected cells were shown not to be lymphoblasts and their numbers were not reduced by removal of mononuclear phagocytes. We conclude that in LCM virus carrier mice true lymphocytes participate in the infectious process.


2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (10) ◽  
pp. 4928-4940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya F. Kotturi ◽  
Bjoern Peters ◽  
Fernando Buendia-Laysa ◽  
John Sidney ◽  
Carla Oseroff ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT CD8+ T-cell responses control lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection in H-2b mice. Although antigen-specific responses against LCMV infection are well studied, we found that a significant fraction of the CD8+ CD44hi T-cell response to LCMV in H-2b mice was not accounted for by known epitopes. We screened peptides predicted to bind major histocompatibility complex class I and overlapping 15-mer peptides spanning the complete LCMV proteome for gamma interferon (IFN-γ) induction from CD8+ T cells derived from LCMV-infected H-2b mice. We identified 19 novel epitopes. Together with the 9 previously known, these epitopes account for the total CD8+ CD44hi response. Thus, bystander T-cell activation does not contribute appreciably to the CD8+ CD44hi pool. Strikingly, 15 of the 19 new epitopes were derived from the viral L polymerase, which, until now, was not recognized as a target of the cellular response induced by LCMV infection. The L epitopes induced significant levels of in vivo cytotoxicity and conferred protection against LCMV challenge. Interestingly, protection from viral challenge was best correlated with the cytolytic potential of CD8+ T cells, whereas IFN-γ production and peptide avidity appear to play a lesser role. Taken together, these findings illustrate that the LCMV-specific CD8+ T-cell response is more complex than previously appreciated.


1997 ◽  
Vol 185 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Binder ◽  
Jörg Fehr ◽  
Hans Hengartner ◽  
Rolf M. Zinkernagel

The hematologic consequences of infection with the noncytopathic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) were studied in wild-type mice with inherent variations in their interferon (IFN)-α/β responder ability and in mutant mice lacking α/β (IFN-α/β R0/0) or γ IFN (IFN-γ R0/0) receptors. During the first week of infection, wild type mice demonstrated a transient pancytopenia. Within a given genetic background, the extent of the blood cell abnormalities did not correlate with the virulence of the LCMV isolate but variations were detected between different mouse strains; they were found to depend on their IFN-α/β responder phenotype. Whereas IFN-γ R0/0 mice were comparable to wild-type mice, IFN-α/β R0/0 mice exhibited unchanged peripheral blood values during acute LCMV infection. In parallel, the bone marrow (BM) cellularity, the pluripotential and committed progenitor compartments were up to 30-fold reduced in wild type and IFN-γ R0/0, but remained unchanged in IFN-α/β R0/0 mice. Viral titers in BM 3 d after LCMV infection were similar in these mice, but antigen localization was different. Viral antigen was predominantly confined to stromal BM in normal mice and IFN-γ R0/0 knockouts, whereas, in IFN-α/β R0/0 mice, LCMV was detected in >90% of megakaryocytes and 10–15% of myeloid precursors, but not in erythroblasts. Although IFN-α/β efficiently prevented viral replication in potentially susceptible hematopoietic cells, even in overwhelming LCMV infection, unlimited virus multiplication in platelet and myeloid precursors in IFN-α/β R0/0 mice did not interfere with the number of circulating blood cells. Natural killer (NK) cell expansion and activity in the BM was comparable on day 3 after infection in mutant and control mice. Adaptive immune responses did not play a major role because comparable kinetics of LCMV-induced pancytopenia and transient depletion of the pluripotential and committed progenitor compartments were observed in CD80/0 and CD40/0 mice, in mice depleted of NK cells, in lpr mice, and in perforin-deficient (P0/0) mice lacking lytic NK cells. Thus, the reversible depression of hematopoiesis during early LCMV infection was not mediated by LCMV-WE–specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte, cytolysis, or secreted IFN-γ from virally induced NK cells but was a direct effect of IFN-α/β.


1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 5918-5925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias von Herrath ◽  
Bryan Coon ◽  
Dirk Homann ◽  
Tom Wolfe ◽  
Luca G. Guidotti

ABSTRACT The outcome of viral infections is dependent on the amount of tissue destruction caused either by direct lysis of infected cells and/or by immunopathology resulting from the immune response to the virus. We investigated whether induction of tolerance to only one viral protein could reduce immunopathology caused by nonlytic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) in perforin-deficient hosts. Earlier studies had shown that LCMV infection results in aplastic anemia and death in most of these mice and that this is associated with bone marrow infiltration by antiviral cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) that secrete inflammatory cytokines. We report here that perforin-deficient mice exhibit severe immunopathology in multiple organs that is characterized by infiltration of anti-LCMV CTL that secrete large amounts of gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Importantly, this immunopathology is significantly reduced and long-term survival of LCMV infection is increased in perforin-deficient mice expressing LCMV nucleoprotein (NP) in the thymus (and therefore deleting most of their LCMV-NP CTL) compared to the situation in thymus nonexpressors. This is due to the selective reduction of NP-specific CTL responses and their inflammatory-cytokine (IFN-γ and TNF-α) secretion and to a lack of pathogenetically relevant compensatory responses to other viral proteins. Thus, “selective reduction” of the antiviral immune response to only one viral protein can significantly reduce inflammatory immunopathology and might be a therapeutic possibility for certain nonlytic infections.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 41-46
Author(s):  
Moomal Haris ◽  
Harun Gupta

Synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis (SAPHO) is an acronym which encompasses SAPHO. SAPHO is a distinct clinical syndrome which involves the musculoskeletal and dermatological systems. The clinical presentation can be variable, and therefore, patients may present to non-specialists who are not familiar with the disease. It is, therefore, important for the radiologist to be aware of the imaging manifestations of SAPHO; as often, it is them who are the first to propose the diagnosis. Imaging allows differentiation of SAPHO from other disease processes such as inflammatory arthropathy, infection, and malignancy which can share similar features and also to demonstrate potentially subclinical areas of disease involvement. Treatment is empirical and aimed at symptom control and modifying the inflammatory process. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are the first-line agents. The disease has a good long-term prognosis, despite the challenges in diagnosis and treatment.


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