What is it about?
Culturing of cells infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) with myeloid dendritic cells, a type of immune cells at the intersection of innate and adaptive immunity, impaired virus replication by several orders of magnitude. This effect was due to factors released by myeloid dendritic cells, and interferons played an important role in the process. Virus latency is a hallmark of herpesviruses, and allows them to stay in a host for years without replicating and causing disease, but to come out of this state if the immune system is impaired. Since dendritic cells blocked CMV growth reversibly, and the virus promptly restarted its replication once the dendritic cells were removed, our results imply that a state akin to latency was achieved.
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Why is it important?
Severe CMV disease mainly occurs once the virus reactivates from latency in immunocompromised people. We showed here that myeloid dendritic cells play an important role in this process.
Perspectives
It has long been assumed that immune cells of the myeloid lineage harbor latent CMV. This idea was based on the notion that cultures of primary myeloid-lineage cells, infected experimentally with CMV, showed a restriction of virus replication that is reminiscent of latency. Our results argue that latency may be achieved in the presence of myeloid dendritic cells, rather than within them.
Dr Luka Cicin_Sain
Hermann von Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Type I Interferon Released by Myeloid Dendritic Cells Reversibly Impairs Cytomegalovirus Replication by Inhibiting Immediate Early Gene Expression, Journal of Virology, July 2015, ASM Journals,
DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01459-15.
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