Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 298, Issue 1-2, Pages 127-134Publisher
ELSEVIER GMBH
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmm.2007.08.010
Keywords
vaccination; recombinant virus vectors; coxsackievirus B3; myocarditis; cytokines
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Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of human death and have been linked to many different risk factors. Among them, coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), as a member of the enterovirus group, is one of the most important infectious agents of virus-induced myocarditis. Despite the fact that the molecular structure of this pathogen has been characterized very precisely, there is no virus-specific preventive or therapeutic procedure against CVB3-induced heart disease in clinical use today. A promising approach to prevent CVB3-caused myocarditis represents the mutation of the viral genome in a way that coding sequences of cytokines are integrated into the viral RNA. Recombinant cytokine-expressing CVB3 variants were established to increase the local cytokine concentration and to modulate TH1-/TH2-specific immune responses. Especially protective against CVB3-induced murine myocarditis is the application of an interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)-expressing recombinant coxsackievirus variant. The local and simultaneous expression of an immuno-relevant cytokine by the virus itself induces a strong and long-lasting immune response which protects laboratory animals against lethal infections. (C) 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
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