Sequential polymicrobial infections lead to CNS inflammatory disease: Possible involvement of bystander activation in heterologous immunity

VVPLP is a recombinant vaccinia virus (VV) encoding myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) that has been used to investigate molecular mimicry and autoimmunity. Since virus infections can cause bystander activation, mice were first infected with VVPLP, and later challenged with wild-type VV, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), or murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV). Among the VVPLP-primed mice, only MCMV challenge induced significant Ki-67+, CD3+T cell infiltration into the central nervous system (CNS) with a mild PLP antibody response. While MCMV alone caused no CNS disease, control VV-infected mice followed with MCMV developed mild CNS inflammation. Thus, heterologous virus infections can induce CNS pathology.