Our studies of various virologic and immunopathologic processes that occur when viruses and parasites replicate in the ocular microenvironment comprise four areas: (1) virus induced retinal degenerative processes; (2) the possible roles of viruses in human diseases; (3) molecular diagnosis and pathogenesis of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections in man; and (4) herpesvirus infections of the eye. We have established a model system for studying retinal degenerative diseases, experimental coronavirus retinopathy (ECOR). The virus is capable of inducing an acute infection in the presence of mild retinal vascular inflammation. Initial retinal damage is followed by clearance of infectious virus and progressive retinal degeneration. This is the first retinal model to demonstrate a virus induced degeneration, viral persistence, a genetic predisposition to virus induced tissue damage and a virus triggered autoimmune response. Our goal is to determine the pathophysiological mechanisms and to identify genes involved in the retinal degenerative disease. During the past year we have made the following key findings. We evaluated very early cytokine and chemokine profiles as a measure of intensity of immune reactivity in coronavirus infected mice with a retinal degeneration susceptible and a retinal degeneration resistant background. These studies identified a distinct difference in the early immune response that is generated by the two mouse strains. These differences are noted in the production of IFN-gamma and the two chemokines triggered by IFN-gamma, CXCL9 and CXCL10. At day 2 and 3 PI, BALB/c mice have high levels of IFN-gamma, CXCL9 and CXCL10 in their sera. At the same time, significantly lower levels of these molecules are detected in sera from CD-1 mice. Moreover, real time PCR analysis of retinas identified that CXCL9 and CXCL10 gene expression is significantly greater in retinas from BABL/c mice in comparison to CD-1 mice. These studies are truly exciting and identify possible mechanisms that allow the BALB/c mouse to have a robust immune response that could trigger an autoimmune component. CXCL9 and CXCL10 are potent chemokines that interact with CXCR3 present on activated T cells and NK cells. They direct the migration and stimulate the adhesion of these cells. These T cells participate in immune reactivity against infected and self targets within the retina. These chemokines have been shown to be key elements in virus infections such as HSV keratitis and SARS. In fact, in SARS, serum concentrations of CXCL10 detected early after infection is an independent prognostic indicator of disease outcome.? ? Corneal herpes infection elicits a robust inflammatory response and eventually leads to a vision-threatening stromal keratitis as a sequela of frequent reactivation of latent virus. The aetiology of herpetic stromal keratitis is thought to be an aberrant Th1 cytokine mediated immunopathology. We evaluated HSV infection in human corneal epithelial and corneal fibroblast cells. We found that HSV DNA resulted in augmented TLR-3 and 9 gene expression and IL-6 release. As virus is frequently in the form of neutralized virus immune complexes, the ability of these immune complexes to interact with TLRs and trigger IL-6 production was evaluated. We found that HSV-anti-HSV IgG complexes were as potent as HSV DNA in their ability to induce IL-6. These phenomena were mediated via augmented TLR-3 and .9 gene expression. These studies indicate that viral DNA and/or immune complexes deposited in corneal stroma may continue to trigger stromal inflammation by excessive cytokine release via TLR3 and 9 long after the initial acute viral insult has subsided.
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