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Immunobiology of congenital cytomegalovirus infection of the central nervous system—the murine cytomegalovirus model.

ABSTRACT: Congenital human cytomegalovirus infection is a leading infectious cause of long-term neurodevelopmental sequelae, including mental retardation and hearing defects. Strict species specificity of cytomegaloviruses has restricted the scope of studies of cytomegalovirus infection in animal models. To investigate the pathogenesis of congenital human cytomegalovirus infection, we developed a mouse cytomegalovirus model that recapitulates the major characteristics of central nervous system infection in human infants, including the route of neuroinvasion and neuropathological findings. Following intraperitoneal inoculation of newborn animals with mouse cytomegalovirus, the virus disseminates to the central nervous system during high-level viremia and replicates in the brain parenchyma, resulting in a focal but widespread, non-necrotizing encephalitis. Central nervous system infection is coupled with the recruitment of resident and peripheral immune cells as well as the expression of a large number of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Although infiltration of cellular constituents of the innate immune response characterizes the early immune response in the central nervous system, resolution of productive infection requires virus-specific CD8(+) T cells. Perinatal mouse cytomegalovirus infection results in profoundly altered postnatal development of the mouse central nervous system and long-term motor and sensory disabilities. Based on an enhanced understanding of the pathogenesis of this infection, prospects for novel intervention strategies aimed to improve the outcome of congenital human cytomegalovirus infection are proposed.

SUBMITTER: Slavuljica I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4654296 | biostudies-other | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Immunobiology of congenital cytomegalovirus infection of the central nervous system—the murine cytomegalovirus model.

Slavuljica Irena I Kveštak Daria D Huszthy Peter Csaba PC Kosmac Kate K Britt William J WJ Jonjić Stipan S

Cellular & molecular immunology 20140721 2

Congenital human cytomegalovirus infection is a leading infectious cause of long-term neurodevelopmental sequelae, including mental retardation and hearing defects. Strict species specificity of cytomegaloviruses has restricted the scope of studies of cytomegalovirus infection in animal models. To investigate the pathogenesis of congenital human cytomegalovirus infection, we developed a mouse cytomegalovirus model that recapitulates the major characteristics of central nervous system infection i ...[more]

PMID: 25042632

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Project description:Background: Cystatin F is a secreted lysosomal cysteine protease inhibitor that has been implicated in affecting the severity of demyelination and enhancing remyelination in pre-clinical models of immune-mediated demyelination. How cystatin F impacts neurologic disease severity following viral infection of the central nervous system (CNS) has not been well characterized and was the focus of this study. We used cystatin F null-mutant mice (Cst7-/-) with a well-established model of murine coronavirus-induced neurologic disease to evaluate the contributions of cystatin F in host defense, demyelination and remyelination. Methods: Wildtype controls and Cst7-/- mice were intracranially (i.c.) infected with a sublethal dose of the neurotropic JHM strain of mouse hepatitis virus (JHMV), with disease progression and survival monitored daily. Immune cell infiltration into the brain and spinal cord was determined by flow cytometry. Spinal cord demyelination was determined by luxol fast blue (LFB) and Hematoxylin/Eosin (H&E) staining and remyelination evaluated by electron microscopy (EM) and calculation of g-ratios. Immune cell infiltration into the CNS and microglia activation were determined by flow cytometry and 10X genomics chromium 3’ single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq). Results: JHMV-infected Cst7-/- mice were able to control viral replication within the CNS, indicating that cystatin F is not essential for an effective Th1 anti-viral immune response. Infiltration of T cells and monocytes/macrophages into the spinal cords of JHMV-infected Cst7-/- mice was increased compared to infected controls, and this correlated with amplified demyelination and impaired remyelination. Single-cell RNA-seq of CD45+ cells enriched from spinal cords of infected Cst7-/- and control mice at day 21 post-infection (p.i.) revealed enhanced expression of transcripts encoding macrophage chemoattractant, Ccl2, and T cell chemoattractants, Cxcl9 and Cxcl10, combined with elevated expression of interferon-g (Ifng) transcripts and activation markers in CD8+ T cells from Cst7-/- mice compared to controls. Conclusions: Cystatin F is not required for immune-mediated control of JHMV replication within the CNS. However, JHMV-infected Cst7-/- mice exhibited more severe clinical disease associated with increased demyelination and impaired remyelination. The increase in disease severity was associated with elevated expression of macrophage and T cell chemoattractant chemokines, concurrent with increased neuroinflammation. These findings support the theory that one mechanism by which cystatin F affects chronic disease in mice persistently infected with JHMV is through regulating expression of pro-inflammatory molecules that impact neuroinflammation and neurologic disease.

Project description:Prenatal Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection often causes CNS maldevelopment. In a murine model, we detect Murine Cytomegalovirus (MCMV) in brain following intra-peritoneal inoculation at birth. Infected mice show impaired cerebellar development and impaired neurologic function on a beam balance test as adults. Among developmental genes differentially regulated, hindbrain expression of the homeodomain transcription factor HOXa5 was reduced with infection, and fewer HOXa5 expressing neurons were found in vestibular nuclei. Based on the hypothesis that immune activation connects focal viral infection and global CNS maldevelopment, we defined the components of CNS immune response. Flow cytometry showed a large increase in both number and activation of CNS monocytes. Monocytes were found in close association with infected cells by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Oligonucleotide microarrays contained herein identified many differentially expressed genes related to innate immune response. Chemokines, cytokines, cell surface receptors, and proteases are some of the many immunological genes shown to be differentially regulated by MCMV infection. These results together show that MCMV infection induces a complex immune response associated with changes in developmental gene expression and lasting neurologic defecit. Keywords: disease state comparison (virus infection) and competetive hybridization for expression analysis Previous work empirically determined the kinetics of viral spread to and replication in the Balb-C murine CNS. Balb-C mice were inoculated intra-peritoneally at birth, and harvested at 5, 8, 12, and 21 days post inoculation for cerebellar experiments. Controls were mock infected with vehicle (DMEM cell growth media) and harvested at the same timepoints. Each microarray was a two channel MEEBO array, upon which labeled and reverse transcribed cDNA from 3 pooled infected cerebella and three pooled uninfected cerebella competetively hybridized. Three unique biological replicates were performed with day 5 cDNA, 5 unique biological replicates at day 8, 5 unique biological replicates at day 12, and 4 unique biological replicates at day 21. For the analysis, colors channels were seperated and treated as independent hybridizations. However, since the experiments were dual channel, the primary data may be employed to generate ratio based measurements, and each sample is provided a corresponding number that can be used to pair the processed data and derive ratios (mock 3, infected 3). Mice were similarly inoculated and harvested at 5, 15, and 21 days post natal for liver tissue analysis. Inoculation was performed by injection with a microsyringe of 50ul titered virus delivering 500-1000 PFU per animal.

Dataset Information

Immunobiology of congenital cytomegalovirus infection of the central nervous system—the murine cytomegalovirus model.

Publications

Immunobiology of congenital cytomegalovirus infection of the central nervous system—the murine cytomegalovirus model.

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