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Respiratory Syncytial Virus Synergizes with Th2 Cytokines to Induce Optimal Levels of TARC/CCL17
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Respiratory Syncytial Virus Synergizes with Th2 Cytokines to Induce Optimal Levels of TARC/CCL17

Martha M Monick, Linda S Powers, Ihab Hassan, Dayna Groskreutz, Timur O Yarovinsky, Christopher W Barrett, Elaine M Castilow, Delia Tifrea, Steven M Varga and Gary W Hunninghake
The Journal of immunology (1950), Vol.179(3), pp.1648-1658
08/01/2007
DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.179.3.1648
PMCID: PMC4060898
PMID: 17641031

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Abstract

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a ubiquitous virus that preferentially infects airway epithelial cells causing asthma exacerbations and severe disease in immunocompromised hosts. Acute RSV infection induces inflammation in the lung. The chemokine, TARC, recruits Th2 cells to sites of inflammation. We found that acute RSV infection of BALB/c mice increased TARC production in the lung. Immunization of BALB/c mice with individual RSV proteins can lead to the development of Th1 or Th2 biased T cell responses in the lung following RSV infection. We primed animals with a recombinant vaccinia virus (vv) expressing either the RSV fusion (F) protein or the RSV attachment (G) protein, inducing Th1- and Th2-biased pulmonary memory T cell responses, respectively. After RSV infection, TARC production significantly increased in the vvG primed animals only. These data suggest a positive feedback loop for TARC production between RSV infection and Th2 cytokines. RSV infected lung epithelial cells cultured with IL-4 or IL-13 demonstrated a marked increase in the production of TARC. The synergistic effect of RSV and IL-4/ IL-13 on TARC production reflected differential induction of NFκB and STAT6 by the two stimuli (both are in the TARC promoter). These findings demonstrate that RSV induces a chemokine TARC that has the potential to recruit Th2 cells to the lung.
Inflammation Th1 Th2 Cells Viral Infection

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