title: Neonatal experience interacts with adult social stress to alter acute and chronic Theiler's virus infection.
abstract: Previous research has shown that neonatal handling has prolonged protective effects associated with stress resilience and aging, yet little is known about its effect on stress-induced modulation of infectious disease. We have previously demonstrated that social disruption stress exacerbates the acute and chronic phases of the disease when applied prior to Theiler's virus infection (PRE-SDR) whereas it attenuates disease severity when applied concurrently with infection (CON-SDR). Here, we asked whether neonatal handling would protect adult mice from the detrimental effects of PRE-SDR and attenuate the protective effects of CON-SDR on Theiler's virus infection. As expected, handling alone decreased IL-6 and corticosterone levels, protected the non-stressed adult mice from motor impairment throughout infection and reduced antibodies to myelin components (PLP, MBP) during the autoimmune phase of disease. In contrast, neonatal handling X PRE/CON-SDR elevated IL-6 and reduced corticosterone as well as increased motor impairment during the acute phase of the infection. Neonatal handling X PRE/CON-SDR continued to exacerbate motor impairment during the chronic phase, whereas only neonatal handling X PRE-SDR increased in antibodies to PLP, MOG, MBP and TMEV. Together, these results imply that while handling reduced the severity of later Theiler's virus infection in non-stressed mice, brief handling may not be protective when paired with later social stress.
authors.affiliation: Advanced brain Monitoring, Inc, Carlsbad, CA 92008, United States.
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, United States; Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, United States.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maldonado Bouchard
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, United States.
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Prentice
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, United States.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bridegam
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, United States.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rassu
authors.affiliation: Departments of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, United States.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Departments of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, United States.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Steelman
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, United States.
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Welsh
authors.affiliation: Departments of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, United States.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Welsh
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, United States. Electronic address: M-Meagher@tamu.edu.
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Meagher
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D018188:Cardiovirus Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006234:Handling, Psychological; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000276:immunology; D009185:Myelin Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000276:immunology*; D017945:Theilovirus / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6; D009185:Myelin Proteins
keywords: Handling; IL-6; Maternal separation; Multiple sclerosis; Resilience; Social disruption; Stress; Theiler’s virus