Cytomegalovirus establishes a latent reservoir and triggers long-lasting inflammation in the eye.

ABSTRACT: Recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika have highlighted the possibility that viruses may cause enduring infections in tissues like the eye, including the neural retina, which have been considered immune privileged. Whether this is a peculiarity of exotic viruses remains unclear, since the impact of more common viral infections on neural compartments has not been examined, especially in immunocompetent hosts. Cytomegalovirus is a common, universally distributed pathogen, generally innocuous in healthy individuals. Whether in immunocompetent hosts cytomegalovirus can access the eye, and reside there indefinitely, was unknown. Using the well-established murine cytomegalovirus infection model, we show that systemic infection of immunocompetent hosts results in broad ocular infection, chronic infla

SUBMITTER: Voigt V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5978784 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature