Neurologic Alterations Due to Respiratory Virus Infections

Bohmwald, Karen; Gálvez, Nicolás M. S.; Ríos, Mariana; Kalergis, Alexis M.

During years, there was no report about the relationship between hRSV-infections and CNS pathologies. A few years ago, Li et al. (2006) described, in a study that sought to assess the persistence of infection, the ability of the virus to infect sensory neurons that innervate the lung. These authors hypothesized that hRSV infects not only pulmonary neurons but also that the G-hRSV glycoprotein can interact with the chemokine receptor for CX3CL1 (CX3CR1) expressed in these cells (Li et al., 2006) . According to this, they also studied the ability of hRSV to infect primary cortical neuronal cultures and observed, by immunofluorescence, co-localization of N-hRSV protein with neuronal markers. Remarkably, this was not observed when the CX3CR1 was blockade. These results suggest that hRSV can infect neurons in vitro at a low percentage (5%) and that it can also infect sensory neurons of the lungs, as reported in culture (Li et al., 2006) . This work highlights the fact that hRSV can invade the CNS and infects resident cells which may explain how this virus can cause neurological abnormalities in patients.