Yan Sun, Deepika Jain, Cynthia J Koziol-White, Emmanuelle Genoyer, Micah Gilbert, Karla Tapia, Reynold A Panettieri, Richard L Hodinka, Carolina B López
Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of severe respiratory illness in children and susceptible adults. RSV blocks the development of the innate antiviral immune response and can grow to high titers in the respiratory tract. Here we demonstrate that immunostimulatory defective viral genomes (iDVGs) that are naturally generated during RSV replication are strong inducers of the innate antiviral response to RSV in mice and humans. In mice, RSV iDVGs stimulated the expression of antiviral genes, restricted viral replication, and prevented weight loss and lung inflammation...
September 2015: PLoS Pathogens