Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Microbes Infect. 2010 Jan;12(1):37-45. doi: 10.1016/j.micinf.2009.09.013. Epub 2009 Sep 26.
Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a mosquito-borne Flavivirus, is a major cause of acute encephalitis, and neurons have been proposed to be the principle JEV target cells in the central nervous system. However, clinically, infection with JEV leads to increased levels of cytokines and chemokines in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) the levels of which correlate with the mortality rate of patients. This research aimed to study the role of microglial cells in JEV infection. Mouse microglial cells (BV-2) supported the replication of JEV with extracellular production of virus by 10h post-infection, and virus titer reached a maximum (2.55x10(10)pfu/ml) by day 3 post-infection. While apoptosis was induced in response to virus infection, no alteration in nitric oxide production was observed. Microglial cells remained productively infected with JEV for up to 16 weeks without significant morphological alterations, and the released virions were infectious to mouse neuroblastoma (NA) cells. The high virus production and long persistence of JEV in microglial cells suggests that these cells may serve as viral reservoirs for the infection of neurons in the CNS.
日本脑炎病毒（JEV）是一种经蚊子传播的黄病毒，是急性脑炎的主要病因，神经元被认为是中枢神经系统中 JEV 的主要靶细胞。然而，临床上，JEV 感染会导致血清和脑脊液中细胞因子和趋化因子水平升高，其水平与患者的死亡率相关。本研究旨在研究小胶质细胞在 JEV 感染中的作用。小鼠小胶质细胞（BV-2）在感染后 10 小时通过细胞外产生病毒支持 JEV 的复制，病毒滴度在感染后第 3 天达到最大值（2.55x10(10)pfu/ml）。虽然病毒感染会诱导细胞凋亡，但一氧化氮的产生没有变化。小胶质细胞在没有明显形态改变的情况下，可长达 16 周持续被 JEV 感染，并且释放的病毒粒子对小鼠神经母细胞瘤（NA）细胞具有感染性。JEV 在小胶质细胞中的高病毒产量和长期持续存在表明，这些细胞可能是 CNS 中神经元感染的病毒储存库。
