Chemical sympathectomy has no effect on the severity of murine AIDS: murine AIDS alone depletes norepinephrine levels in infected spleen.

Numerous studies have shown that alterations in sympathetic nervous system (SNS) function produced by beta-adrenergic receptor blockade or chemical sympathectomy can produce changes in T and B lymphocyte function and both innate and acquired immune responses. However, fewer studies have investigated changes in immune response following SNS alterations in animal models of disease. We tested whether blocking SNS activity using 6-OHDA or the beta-receptor antagonist nadolol alters the typical pattern in production of T helper 1 (Th1) and Th2 cytokines seen in cultures of spleen cells from C57BL/6 mice infected with murine AIDS (MAIDS). We found that neither method of sympathetic blockade affected cytokine response to MAIDS. We also found that the norepinephrine concentration and content of the spleen were reduced dramatically by the MAIDS infection itself at 3 and 6 weeks after LP-BM5 inoculation. This finding has not been previously reported in mice with MAIDS and suggests that the viral infection itself produces a functional sympathectomy in the spleen, a target of that infection.