In:
The Journal of Immunology, The American Association of Immunologists, Vol. 180, No. 12 ( 2008-06-15), p. 8421-8433
Abstract:
To identify basic mechanisms of how infections may induce a neuron-specific autoimmune response, we generated mice expressing OVA as neuronal autoantigen under control of the neuron-specific enolase promoter (NSE-OVA mice). Intracerebral, but not systemic, infection with attenuated Listeria monocytogenes-secreting OVA induced an atactic-paretic neurological syndrome in NSE-OVA mice after bacterial clearance from the brain, whereas wild-type mice remained healthy. Immunization with attenuated Listeria monocytogenes-secreting OVA before intracerebral infection strongly increased the number of intracerebral OVA-specific CD8 T cells aggravating neurological disease. T cell depletion and adoptive transfer experiments identified CD8 T cells as decisive mediators of the autoimmune disease. Importantly, NSE-OVA mice having received OVA-specific TCR transgenic CD8 T cells developed an accelerated, more severe, and extended neurological disease. Adoptively transferred pathogenic CD8 T cells specifically homed to OVA-expressing MHC class I+ neurons and, corresponding to the clinical symptoms, ∼30% of neurons in the anterior horn of the spinal cord became apoptotic. Thus, molecular mimicry between a pathogen and neurons can induce a CD8 T cell-mediated neurological disease, with its severity being influenced by the frequency of specific CD8 T cells, and its induction, but not its symptomatic phase, requiring the intracerebral presence of the pathogen.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0022-1767
,
1550-6606
DOI:
10.4049/jimmunol.180.12.8421
Language:
English
Publisher:
The American Association of Immunologists
Publication Date:
2008
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1475085-5
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