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Impaired CD8 T cell antiviral immunity following acute spinal cord injury
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Impaired CD8 T cell antiviral immunity following acute spinal cord injury

Diana M. Norden, John R. Bethea and Jiu Jiang
Journal of neuroinflammation, v 15(1), pp 149-149
17 May 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-018-1191-8
PMID: 29776424
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-018-1191-8View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0,  Open

Abstract

Immunology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Neurosciences Neurosciences & Neurology Science & Technology
Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts essential neuroimmune communication, leading to severe immune depression. Previous studies confirmed immune dysfunction in mice with chronic SCI and following high thoracic level injury where sympathetic innervation of the spleen is disrupted. Here, we induced a mid-thoracic injury where integrity of the sympathetic response is maintained and investigated the antiviral T cell response to influenza virus after acute SCI. Methods: One week following a contusion SCI at thoracic level T9, mice were infected intranasally with influenza virus. Profiles of immune cell populations were analyzed before infection, and virus-specific CD8 T cell response was analyzed 7 days post-infection. Results: Following intranasal infection, injured mice had prolonged recovery and significant weight loss. Importantly, expansion and effector functions of virus-specific CD8 T cells were decreased in injured mice. The compromised CD8 T cell response was associated with inflammation and stress responses initiated after injury. Regulatory mechanisms, including increased regulatory T cells (Tregs) and upregulated PD-1/PD-L1, were induced following SCI. Furthermore, we show that increased corticosterone (CORT) levels can inhibit CD8 T cells and that blocking CORT in vivo following SCI enhances CD8 T cell antiviral responses. Conclusions: Our results show that mice with mid-thoracic SCI have impaired CD8 T cell function during the acute stage of injury, indicating that impaired antiviral responses occur rapidly following SCI and is not dependent on injury level.

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19 citations in Web of Science
17 citations in Scopus

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Web of Science research areas
Immunology
Neurosciences
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