2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Role of brain-infiltrating T lymphocytes in the pathogenesis of West Nile virus infection

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23659237
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Virology
Research Institution	National Institute of Infectious Diseases
Principal Investigator	KURANE Ichiro 国立感染症研究所, 副所長 (90278656)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	SUZUKI Ryuji 独立行政法人国立病院機構相模原病院臨床研究センター, 室長 (70373470)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2012
Keywords	ウイルス / 感染症 / 微生物 / 脳神経 / 免疫学
Research Abstract	We characterized brain-infiltrating T lymphocytes in mice infected with West Nile virus (WNV). The expression of CD3, CD8, CD69 positively correlated with viral RNA levels. The results suggest that activated Th1-like cytotoxic CD8(+) T cells are expanded in the brains in response to WNV infection. T cell receptor analysis demonstrated that WNV-specific CD3(+)CD8(+) T cells expanding in the infected brains are highly oligoclonal. Further, the infiltrating CD8(+) T cells were WNV-specific, but not cross-reactive to Japanese encephalitis virus.