Mechanisms of Viral Pathogenesis in the Central Nervous System

National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The innate immune response to virus infection has a strong influence on virus infection in the brain and the clinical outcome of disease. Our studies have focused on animal models of virus-mediated neuropathogenesis to determine the host response proteins that regulate disease induction for virus replication and viral pathogenesis. Our major scientific accomplishments in 2017 including developing a model of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in mice, including defining the adaptive immune response to ZIKV and determining the role of the adaptive immune response in controlling spread of virus to the central nervous system and testes. This work,published in the J. Immunol. (Winkler et al.), was the subject of a NIAID press release. Additionally, we utilized the results from the above study to establish a model system of both sexual and vertical transmission of Zika virus as well as determine the role of the adaptive immune response in preventing this transmission. These studies were published in Scientific Reports (Winkler et al.) and were also the subject of a NIAID press release. In addition to the studies on Zika virus, we also examined the role of the adaptive immune response on La Crosse Virus (LACV) pathogenesis in susceptible young animals and resistant adults. We showed that both T cell and B cell responses were important for protection in resistant adult animals. However, in susceptible young animals, depletion of either the cellular or humoral adaptive immune response had little role in disease progression. These results were published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation (Winkler et al.)