Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.
Front Immunol. 2018 May 17;9:986. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.00986. eCollection 2018.
Although asthmatics has been considered to be highly susceptible to respiratory viral infection and most studies have focused on exacerbation of asthma by influenza A virus (IAV) infection, few experimental evidences exist to directly demonstrate that asthmatic mice are actually resistant to IAV infection. Here, we show that asthmatic mice are not highly susceptible to IAV in the early stage of infection and type III interferon (IFN) maintains antiviral immune response in the lung of IAV-infected asthmatic mouse resulting in inhibition of initial viral spread. C57BL/6 mice with allergic asthma were infected with IAV (WS/33: H1N1) and survival rate, body weight, viral titer, histopathological findings of lung and cytokine profiles including IFNs and Th2 cytokines were measured. Notably, asthmatic mice were significantly resistant to IAV and showed lower viral load until 7 days after infection. Furthermore, IAV-infected asthmatic mice exhibited decreased Th2-related inflammation in lung tissue until 7 days. These increased antiviral resistant mechanism and reduced Th2 inflammation were attributable to rapid induction of type III IFNs and blockade of type III IFNs in asthmatic lung led to aggravated IAV infection and to enhance the production of Th2 cytokines. Asthmatic mice showed bi-phasic responses against IAV-caused lung infection such as rapid production of type III IFNs and subsequent induction of type II IFNs. Actually, IAV-infected asthmatic mice become vulnerable to IAV infection after 7 days with noticeable morbidity and severe weight loss. However, intranasal administration of type III IFNs protects completely asthmatic mice from IAV-mediated immunopathology and lung infection until 14 days after infection. Taken together, our study indicates that the rapid induction of type III IFN might be distinctive immunological findings in the respiratory tract of IAV-infected asthmatic mice at the early stage of infection and crucial for suppression of initial viral spread asthma accompanying with restriction of Th2 cytokine productions.
虽然哮喘患者被认为极易受到呼吸道病毒感染,并且大多数研究都集中在流感病毒 (IAV) 感染引发哮喘恶化上,但很少有实验证据直接表明哮喘小鼠实际上对 IAV 感染具有抗性。在这里,我们表明哮喘小鼠在感染早期对 IAV 感染并不高度易感,并且 III 型干扰素 (IFN) 维持 IAV 感染哮喘小鼠肺部的抗病毒免疫反应,从而抑制初始病毒传播。用 IAV(WS/33:H1N1)感染过敏性哮喘的 C57BL/6 小鼠,并测量存活率、体重、病毒滴度、肺的组织病理学发现以及包括 IFNs 和 Th2 细胞因子在内的细胞因子谱。值得注意的是,哮喘小鼠对 IAV 具有明显的抗性,并且直到感染后 7 天,病毒载量仍较低。此外,IAV 感染的哮喘小鼠在肺部组织中表现出 Th2 相关炎症减少,直到 7 天。这些增加的抗病毒抗性机制和减少的 Th2 炎症归因于 III 型 IFNs 的快速诱导以及在哮喘肺中阻断 III 型 IFNs 导致 IAV 感染加重和 Th2 细胞因子产生增加。哮喘小鼠对 IAV 引起的肺部感染表现出双相反应,例如快速产生 III 型 IFNs 和随后诱导 II 型 IFNs。实际上,感染 IAV 的哮喘小鼠在感染后 7 天变得容易感染 IAV,发病率高且体重明显减轻。然而,鼻内给予 III 型 IFNs 可完全保护哮喘小鼠免受 IAV 介导的免疫病理学和肺部感染,直到感染后 14 天。总之,我们的研究表明,在感染早期,IAV 感染的哮喘小鼠呼吸道中快速诱导 III 型 IFN 可能是其独特的免疫学发现,对于抑制初始病毒传播和伴随 Th2 细胞因子产生限制的哮喘至关重要。