Researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences and other countries discovered how an infection becomes chronic: the key lies in the interaction between T-cells and dendritic cells in the spleen.
Researchers from various countries, including staff at the G. I. Marchuk Institute of Computational Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, have discovered how an infection becomes chronic. According to the scientists, this opens the way to fight HIV and hepatitis more effectively. The work was conducted using lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) as a model. It is known that the immune response is largely determined by the function of the spleen.
RNA synthesis was investigated in the spleen cells of mice infected with LCMV at different stages of infection development. It turned out that the development of the chronic form is linked to the weakening of the inflammatory reaction of monocytes, which are cells of innate immunity. Two groups of immune cells responsible for this process also came into focus. They halt the spread of the virus and trigger the transition of the infection into its chronic stage.
The specialists' report states: «The interaction between T-cells of the immune system, which destroy pathogens in the body, and dendritic cells, which are responsible for cellular antiviral immunity, is to blame. This fact is of paramount importance for controlling the spread of the virus during the chronic phase of infection. The use and further development of experimental and mathematical models will allow the transition to designing optimal control regimes for the dynamics of viral infection in order to restore normal immune system functioning in patients with HIV and other chronic infections».
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