Marios Koutsakos, Hamish E G McWilliam, Turgut E Aktepe, Svenja Fritzlar, Patricia T Illing, Nicole A Mifsud, Anthony W Purcell, Steve Rockman, Patrick C Reading, Julian P Vivian, Jamie Rossjohn, Andrew G Brooks, Jason M Mackenzie, Justine D Mintern, Jose A Villadangos, Thi H O Nguyen, Katherine Kedzierska
Manipulation of the MHC-I presentation pathway, and thus limiting MHC-I cell surface expression, is used by many viruses to evade immune recognition. In particular, downregulation of MHC-I molecules at the cell surface can reduce the ability of CD8+ T cells to recognize viral peptides presented by MHC-I molecules and thereby delay viral clearance by CD8+ T cells. To date, MHC-I downregulation by influenza viruses has not been reported. Given that influenza virus infections are a global health concern and that CD8+ T cells play an important role in promoting influenza virus clearance and recovery from influenza disease, we investigated whether influenza A and B viruses (IAV, IBV) downregulated MHC-I as a novel mechanism to evade cellular immunity...
2019: Frontiers in Immunology