II, 11. Human adaptive immunity to rotaviruses: A model of intestinal mucosal adaptive immunity.

This chapter discusses the human adaptive immune response to rotaviruses (RVs), placing the immune response to RVs in the context of the immune response to other mucosal viruses. The chapter discusses the studies of both RV-specific T and B cells. As children with T and/or B immunodeficiencies can develop chronic RV infection, prolonged symptoms, and extraintestinal infection, it is clear that both T and B cells are important for immunity to RV. The various reasons proposed to explain the absence of complete immunity to mucosal viruses such as RV, following primary infection, include a short incubation period after viral exposure, difficulty in maintaining a high level of protective antibody at respiratory and gastrointestinal mucosal surfaces, and a short-lived protective humoral mucosal immune response.