Role of dendritic cells infected with human herpesvirus 6 in virus transmission to CD4⁺ T cells

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• 作者：Masaya Takemoto ; Takayoshi Imasawa ; Koichi Yamanishi ; Yasuko Mori
• 关键词：HHV-6 ; DCs ; Transmission ; T cells
• 刊名：Virology
• 出版年：2009
• 出版时间：15 March 2009
• 年：2009
• 卷：385
• 期：2
• 页码：294-302
• 全文大小：1642 K

文摘

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is a ubiquitous betaherpesvirus that predominantly infects and replicates in CD4⁺ T lymphocytes. However, the mechanism of HHV-6 transmission to T cells from the peripheral mucosa is unknown. Here we found that dendritic cells (DCs) can transmit HHV-6 to T cells, resulting in productive infection. In immature monocyte-derived DCs (MDDCs) infected with HHV-6, viral early and late antigens were expressed, and nucleocapsids containing a DNA core were observed, although few virions were detected in the cytoplasm by electron microscopy, indicating that the maturation of HHV-6 virions may be incomplete in MDDCs. However, HHV-6 transmission from MDDCs to stimulated CD4⁺ T cells occurred efficiently in coculture of these cells, but not from MDDCs culture supernatants. This transmission was partially inhibited by treating the DCs with a viral DNA synthesis blocker, indicating that viral replication in MDDCs is required for this transmission. Furthermore, myeloid DCs and plasmacytoid DCs infected with HHV-6 could also transmit the virus to stimulated T cells. Thus, DCs may be the first cell population targeted by HHV-6 and could play an important role in the virus' transmission to T cells for their further propagation.