Skip to main content

How the immune system keeps the Epstein-Barr virus in check!!

A protein called PD-1, which is found on immune cells called CD8+ T cells, plays a key role in controlling infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, according to a study published May 30 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Christian Münz of the University of Zurich, and colleagues. The results from this study indicate that monitoring PD-1 signaling during future vaccination and immunotherapy studies may inform patient outcomes.
Since its discovery as a tumor virus by Epstein and colleagues in 1964, the Epstein-Barr virus has been implicated in many serious diseases. This virus is one of the most ubiquitous human pathogens in the world, persistently infecting more than 90% of the adult human population. It drives some of the strongest human CD8+ T cell responses, which can be observed during the initial symptomatic (or primary) stage of infection known as infectious mononucleosis. Despite high viral loads and prolonged CD8+ T cell stimulation during infectious mononucleosis, the Epstein-Barr virus enters latency and is under lifelong immune control in most individuals that experience this disease. Currently, in vivo studies are lacking to understand the comprehensive immune control of the Epstein-Barr virus in most healthy virus carriers, and, in particular, the characteristics of the CD8+ T cells involved in this process.
To address this gap in knowledge, Münz and colleagues examined CD8+ T cells in patients with active infectious mononucleosis, as well as in a well-characterized mouse model for Epstein-Barr virus infection. The researchers found that even though CD8+ T cells express multiple receptors that normally inhibit immune responses, including PD-1, during primary Epstein-Barr virus infection, these T cells appear to retain the ability to produce cytokines, kill infected cells, and proliferate. Importantly, blocking the PD-1 pathway leads to specific defects in controlling the Epstein-Barr virus and increases virus-induced tumor formation in infected animals, indicating that this pathway is important for viral control. This is in contrast to previous studies showing that PD-1 helps keep the body's immune responses in check, and releasing this inhibitory block is important for reinvigorating immune responses against cancer. Because PD-1 function is required to keep the Epstein-Barr virus in check, this study provides evidence against blocking inhibitory pathways in disease settings that require improved immune control of chronic virus infections.
"Although immune checkpoint blockade constitutes a major breakthrough in cancer therapy, our results suggest that reactivation of persistent virus infections should be monitored as a possible side effect at least during anti-PD-1 treatment." says Bithi Chatterjee, first author of the study.
Story Source:
Materials provided by PLOS. 
Note: Content may be edited

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark matter may be older than the Big Bang

Dark matter, which researchers believe make up about 80% of the universe's mass, is one of the most elusive mysteries in modern physics. What exactly it is and how it came to be is a mystery, but a new Johns Hopkins University study now suggests that dark matter may have existed before the Big Bang. The study, published August 7 in  Physical Review Letters , presents a new idea of how dark matter was born and how to identify it with astronomical observations. "The study revealed a new connection between particle physics and astronomy. If dark matter consists of new particles that were born before the Big Bang, they affect the way galaxies are distributed in the sky in a unique way. This connection may be used to reveal their identity and make conclusions about the times before the Big Bang too," says Tommi Tenkanen, a postdoctoral fellow in Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University and the study's author. While not much is known about its origins,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Home births as safe as hospital births: International study suggests

A large international study led by McMaster University shows that low risk pregnant women who intend to give birth at home have no increased chance of the baby's perinatal or neonatal death compared to other low risk women who intend to give birth in a hospital. The results have been published by  The Lancet 's  EClinicalMedicine  journal. "More women in well-resourced countries are choosing birth at home, but concerns have persisted about their safety," said Eileen Hutton, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at McMaster, founding director of the McMaster Midwifery Research Centre and first author of the paper. "This research clearly demonstrates the risk is no different when the birth is intended to be at home or in hospital." The study examined the safety of place of birth by reporting on the risk of death at the time of birth or within the first four weeks, and found no clinically important or statistically different risk between home...
Post a Comment
Read more

GSAT-11 satellite to be launched from French Guiana on Dec 5th

GSAT-11 satellite to be launched from French Guiana on Dec 5th GSAT-11 would be located at 74 East and is the fore-runner in a series of advanced communications satellite with multi-spot beam antenna coverage over Indian mainland and Islands, ISRO said. GSAT-11 is the next generation “high throughput” communication satellite configured around ISRO’s I-6K Bus. (PTI/Representational). Indian space agency ISRO is scheduled to launch GSAT-11, the “heaviest” satellite built by it, on-board Ariane-5 rocket of Arianespace from French Guiana on December 5. Weighing about 5,854 kg, GSAT-11 would play a vital role in providing broadband services across the country, and also provide a platform to demonstrate new generation applications, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. It is the “heaviest” satellite built by ISRO, the space agency said. GSAT-11 is the next generation “high throughput” communication satellite configured around ISRO’s  I-6K Bus, and it...
Post a Comment
Read more