Indelible labeling and tracking of influenza virus infected antigen presenting cells

• Published in: The Journal of immunology (1950) Vol. 196; no. 1_Supplement; pp. 78 - 78.1
• Main Authors: Langlois, Ryan A, Fiege, Jessica K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.05.2016
• ISSN: 0022-1767; 1550-6606
• DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.196.Supp.78.1

Abstract Influenza A virus is a seasonal pathogen with the potential to unpredictably cause catastrophic pandemics. The virus primarily replicates in epithelial cells of the upper and lower respiratory tract but can also infect a spectrum of other cell lineages, including cells of the immune system. Classically infected cells have been tracked through detection of virus products (RNA or protein) or through virus-derived reporters. However, these methods cannot define any potentially remaining infected cells after active replication has ceased. Using a novel virus expressing Cre recombinase to indelibly label infected cells in reporter mice, we unexpectedly found that epithelial cells were capable of surviving influenza virus infection long-term (Heaton and Langlois et al J. Ex. Med. 2014). We have subsequently discovered that infected CD45+ immune cells are also capable of surviving acute influenza virus infection in vivo. Importantly this virus-reporter system is able to distinguish between immune cells that are directly infected versus those that acquire virus protein/antigen exogenously. We find that both dendritic cells and macrophages, but not B cells, are directly infected within the lung and that the number of these cells increases during the acute infection phase. However, infected dendritic cells and macrophages do not persist in the lungs nor do they migrate systemically. Together these data demonstrate a new tool to track infected cells and defines the migration, turnover, and survival of infected antigen presenting cells.