title: Resistance to and recovery from lethal influenza virus infection in B lymphocyte-deficient mice.
abstract: In the adaptive immune response to most viruses, both the cellular and humoral arms of the immune system play complementary roles in eliminating virus and virus-infected cells and in promoting recovery. To evaluate the relative contribution of CD4+ and CD8+ effector T lymphocytes in virus clearance and recovery, we have examined the host response to lethal type A influenza virus infection in B lymphocyte-deficient mice with a targeted disruption in the immunoglobulin mu heavy chain. Our results indicate that naive B cell-deficient mice have a 50- 100-fold greater susceptibility to lethal type A influenza virus infection than do wild type mice. However, after priming with sublethal doses of influenza, immune B cell-deficient animals show an enhanced resistance to lethal virus infection. This finding indicates that an antibody-independent immune-mediated antiviral mechanism accounts for the increased resistance to lethal virus challenge. To assess the contribution of influenza-specific CD4+ and CD8+ effector T cells in this process, defined clonal populations of influenza-specific CD4+ and CD8+ effector T cells were adoptively transferred into lethally infected B cell-deficient mice. Cloned CD8+ effectors efficiently promoted recovery from lethal infection, whereas cloned CD4+ T cells conferred only partial protection. These results suggest that memory T lymphocytes can act independently of a humoral immune response in order to confer resistance to influenza infection in immune individuals. The potential implications of these results for vaccination against human influenza infection are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908, USA. mbgraham@uic.edu
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Braciale
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000276:immunology*; D007156:Immunologic Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009980:Influenza A virus; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout