Japanese encephalitis virus latency in peripheral blood lymphocytes and recurrence of infection in children

Abstract

SUMMARYIn a study group of 40 children who had been admitted to hospital with acute encephalitis, the disease was due to infection wilh Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). Three children developed recurrence of disease 8-9 months later. No virus had been isolated from these three patients during the acute stage of their illness, but virus was recovered from all during the recurrence phase by co-cultivation of their peripheral blood mononuclear cells in primary mouse embryo fibroblast cultures. Virus was also recovered by co-cultivation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells collected 8 months after their acute disease from three out of eight randomly selected asymptomatic children within the study group but not from similar cultures set up from JEV-seronegative children used as controls. Virus was also isolated by co-cultivation of T lymphocytes of asymptomatic children as detected by indirect immunofluorescence or by inoculation in mice.

Japanese encephalitis virus infection modulates the expression of suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) in macrophages: Implications for the hosts’ innate immune response

“…Persistence of JEV has been demonstrated in cultured mammalian cells [15,16], as well as in a mouse model [17][18][19]. In JE survivors there have been reports of viral persistence long after the alleviation of symptoms [20,21]. These observations indicate that JEV may have evolved different mechanisms for immune evasion in the host.…”

Histone deacetylase inhibition by Japanese encephalitis virus in monocyte/macrophages: A novel viral immune evasion strategy

“…Virus latency and recurrence of infection has been reported in human patients of JE (Sharma et al 1991), and peripheral blood mononuclear cells have been implicated in such processes. JEV can survive within peripheral macrophages (Aleyas et al 2009;Dutta et al 2010), but whether it is related with avoidance of immune detection is unknown.…”

In situ reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (in situ RT-LAMP) for detection of Japanese encephalitis viral RNA in host cells

“…40 As a matter of fact, flaviviruses including the JE virus and other flaviviruses have been identified to exist in PBMCs of convalescent blood samples, indicating the possibility of persistent viral infection in leukocytes. 41 Moreover, JE viral RNA fragment has ever been amplified from white blood cells during the acute phase of infection. 42 This suggests that detection of such viruses in leukocytes may help make a diagnosis even though the blood was collected in the acute viremia stage.…”