| First Author | Miles MA | Year | 2023 |
| Journal | Front Immunol | Volume | 14 |
| Pages | 1240552 | PubMed ID | 37795093 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:347835 | Mgi Id | MGI:7537785 |
| Doi | 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1240552 | Citation | Miles MA, et al. (2023) TLR7 promotes chronic airway disease in RSV-infected mice. Front Immunol 14:1240552 |
| abstractText | Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) commonly infects the upper respiratory tract (URT) of humans, manifesting with mild cold or flu-like symptoms. However, in infants and the elderly, severe disease of the lower respiratory tract (LRT) often occurs and can develop into chronic airway disease. A better understanding of how an acute RSV infection transitions to a LRT chronic inflammatory disease is critically important to improve patient care and long-term health outcomes. To model acute and chronic phases of the disease, we infected wild-type C57BL/6 and toll-like receptor 7 knockout (TLR7 KO) mice with RSV and temporally assessed nasal, airway and lung inflammation for up to 42 days post-infection. We show that TLR7 reduced viral titers in the URT during acute infection but promoted pronounced pathogenic and chronic airway inflammation and hyperreactivity in the LRT. This study defines a hitherto unappreciated molecular mechanism of lower respiratory pathogenesis to RSV, highlighting the potential of TLR7 modulation to constrain RSV pathology to the URT. |
