title: Suppression of pattern-recognition receptor TLR4 sensing does not alter lung responses to pneumovirus infection.
abstract: Toll-like receptors (TLR) are an important component in the innate immune response to a wide variety of pathogens. Recently, a series of studies has addressed the hypothesis that TLR4 also participates in the host innate response against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the leading cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children. In most of the studies available, RSV, which is not a natural pathogen of mice, has been systematically used in mouse models of human bronchiolitis, with conflicting results. Pneumonia virus of mice (PVM), a member of the pneumovirus genus, shares many similarities with RSV. The serological and structural relationships that exist between them suggest that the immune response to these viruses may be similar in their respective natural hosts. To determine the role of TLR4 in host defense against PVM, TLR4-competent and TLR4-deficient mice were intranasally infected with PVM. Variation of body weight, pulmonary function values, histopathology, and pulmonary viral loads were analyzed. None of the investigated clinical, functional, histological and virological parameters was different between strains, which demonstrates that the sensitivity of the mouse to its natural pneumovirus infection is independent of the presence or absence of TLR4 sensing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Liège, Sart Tilman FMV-B43, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Faisca
authors.forename: Dao Bui
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Tran Anh
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Desmecht
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008168:Lung / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D051379:Mice; D018186:Pneumovirus Infections / Q000378:metabolism*; D012119:Respiration; D018108:Respirovirus / Q000502:physiology*; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: C493487:Tlr4 protein, mouse; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4