Togavirus-Specific Cellular Immune Effector Mechanisms
Abstract:
This project was initiated to assess the role of virus-specific cellular immune responses in recovery from, and protection against togavirus infections. Initial studies have focused first on characterizing the salient features of Sindbis virus SV infections both in several inbred strains of mice, 6-8 weeks of age, and in cultured murine cell lines bearing the same major histocompatibility H-2 antigens and, second, on determining the requirements and optimal conditions for inducing and measuring cell-mediated immune reactivity. Tentatively, it is concluded that 1 the genetic background of the host is an important factor in determining its susceptibility to SV and possibly other alphaviruses and, 2 host cell H-2 antigens probably are involved in the induction of and virus-specific recognition by SV-specific effector lymphocytes.