| First Author | Ji Q | Year | 2010 |
| Journal | Nat Immunol | Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 7 | Pages | 628-34 |
| PubMed ID | 20526343 | Mgi Jnum | J:161855 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4461822 | Doi | 10.1038/ni.1888 |
| Citation | Ji Q, et al. (2010) Viral infection triggers central nervous system autoimmunity via activation of CD8+ T cells expressing dual TCRs. Nat Immunol 11(7):628-34 |
| abstractText | Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory, demyelinating, central nervous system disease mediated by myelin-specific T cells. Environmental triggers that cause the breakdown of myelin-specific T cell tolerance are unknown. Here we found that CD8(+) myelin basic protein (MBP)-specific T cell tolerance was broken and autoimmunity was induced by infection with a virus that did not express MBP cross-reactive epitopes and did not depend on bystander activation. Instead, the virus activated T cells expressing dual T cell antigen receptors (TCRs) that were able to recognize both MBP and viral antigens. Our results demonstrate the importance of dual TCR-expressing T cells in autoimmunity and suggest a mechanism by which a ubiquitous viral infection could trigger autoimmunity in a subset of infected people, as suggested by the etiology of multiple sclerosis. |
