What is it about?
If we get rid of microglial cells in the brain, viruses grow better, indicating these cells help provide early protection against viruses that can infect the brain
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Why is it important?
Viral infections of the brain cause important human diseases including meningitis and encephalitis and understanding the normal defenses against these infections may help us develop better treatments
Perspectives
West Nile virus (WNV) is the most important cause of acute viral encephalitis in the United States in many years and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the most important cause of encephalitis worldwide. We have a effective JEV vaccine that can help prevent disease and similarly have effective horse WNV vaccines but no therapy for either infection once disease develops. Understanding how the host protects itself against these infections may help us develop better treatment and prevention approaches.
Chair of Neurology, Univ. CO School of Medicine Kenneth L Tyler
University of Colorado
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Pharmacologic Depletion of Microglia Increases Viral Load in the Brain and Enhances Mortality in Murine Models of Flavivirus-Induced Encephalitis, Journal of Virology, June 2018, ASM Journals,
DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00525-18.
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