Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 98, Issue 9, Pages 5146-5151Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.081080298
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
IL-2 and -15 belong to the four cu-helix bundle family of cytokines and display a spectrum of overlapping immune functions because of shared signal transducing receptor components of the IL-2 receptor complex. However, recent evidence suggests a nonredundant unique role for IL-15 in the establishment and perhaps maintenance of peripheral natural killer (NK) cell populations in vivo. To explore the contribution of locally released IL-15 on peripheral NK-cell-mediated innate immune responses, we generated a recombinant vaccinia virus that expresses IL-15 and evaluated the course of Vaccinial disease in athymic nude mice. Coexpression of IL-15 resulted in the attenuation of virulence of vaccinia virus, and mice inoculated with 10(5) plaque-forming units or less resolved the infection successfully. In contrast, mice inoculated with a similar dose of the control vaccinia virus failed to eliminate the virus and died of generalized vaccinial disease. Enhanced expression of IL-12 and IFN-gamma as well as induction of chemokines were evident in the mice inoculated with IL-15-expressing vaccinia virus in addition to an increase in NK cells in the spleen. However. in this model system, the degree of attenuation in viral virulence attained with coexpression of IL-15 was much less than that achieved with coexpression of IL-2. suggesting that the peripheral NK-cell-mediated events are more responsive to IL-2 than to IL-15.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available