Key result
Viral immunosuppression targets T cells through strategies such as retrovirus-induced expansion of regulatory T cells or measles virus-induced direct contact-mediated T-cell silencing.
This review summarizes two distinct mechanisms of virus-induced T-cell immunosuppression utilized by retroviruses and the measles virus.
May inform viral infection management in immunocompromised patients; leaves open validation of T-cell targeting strategies in clinical studies.
The ability to evade or suppress the host's immune response is a property of many viruses, indicating that this provides an advantage for the pathogen to spread efficiently or even to establish a persistent infection. The type and complexity of its genome and cell tropism but also its preferred type of host interaction are important parameters which define the strategy of a given virus to modulate the immune system in an optimal manner. Because they take a central position in any antiviral defence, the activation and function of T cells are the predominant target of many viral immunosuppressive regimens. In this review, two different strategies whereby this could be achieved are summarized. Retroviruses can infect professional antigen-presenting cells and impair their maturation and functional properties. This coincides with differentiation and expansion of silencing T cells referred to as regulatory T cells with suppressive activity, mainly to CD8+ effector T cells. The second concept, outlined for measles virus, is a direct, contact-mediated silencing of T cells which acquire a transient paralytic state.
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Schneider‐Schaulies et al. (2006) conducted a review in Virus-induced immunosuppression. Viral immunosuppression targets T cells through strategies such as retrovirus-induced expansion of regulatory T cells or measles virus-induced direct contact-mediated T-cell silencing.
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