The Cholinergic Anti-Inflammatory Pathway Contributes to the Limited Inflammatory Response following Rotavirus Infection

• Rotavirus causes acute gastroenteritis in young children and is characterized by severe diarrhoea and vomiting. Surprisingly, although rotavirus infection results in significant intestinal pathology, the inflammatory response is limited. We tested the novel hypothesis that rotavirus infection stimulates the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway to suppress gut inflammation. The role of the vagus nerve and the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7 nAChR) in rotavirus infection were explored in α7 nAChR gene-deficient mice, vagotomized mice and wild-type mice treated with the α7 nAChR antagonist mecamylamine. TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 were measured in serum, spleen, duodenum, jejunum and ileum at 48 hours post infection. To determine if modulation of the inflammatory response affects virus shedding, α7 nAChRs was blocked and virus quantified in faeces. To investigate if stimulation of α7 nAChRs could attenuate rotavirus toxin NSP4-induced cytokine release, mouse peritoneal- and human blood-macrophages were treated with nicotine before NSP4 stimulation.Our results shows that stimulation of the vagus nerve and α7 nAChRs attenuated the pro- inflammatory response during rotavirus infection and blockade of the α7 nAChR reduced virus shedding from infected mice. IL-6 was increased in duodenum (p<0.05) and serum (p<0.05) of vagotomized mice and in jejunum (p<0.05) and spleen (p<0.05) of α7 nAChR gene-deficient mice. Furthermore, IL-6 mRNA (p<0.01) and TNF-α mRNA (p<0.05) were increased in duodenum of vagotomized animals. Similarly, nicotine attenuated the release of TNF-α (p<0.05) and IL-6 (p<0.05) from macrophages stimulated by NSP4 in vitro, all suggesting that the cholinergic anti- inflammatory pathway contributes to attenuate inflammation during rotavirus infection.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Mikrobiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Microbiology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper -- Cell- och molekylärbiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Basic Medicine -- Cell and Molecular Biology (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)