Replication-defective viruses modulate immune responses

By immunizing inbred mice with purified replication-competent, defective virus particles, or an admixture of the two, differential effects on the cellular immune system have been uncovered. Defective virus, exemplified by the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) defective interfering particle (DI 0.33), induced in BALB/c mice low levels of proliferating, IL-2 secreting, and cytolytic Ag-specific T lymphocytes. This was not caused by a dominant suppressor cell response, or by a failure to stimulate lymphokine-secreting cells, but appeared to reflect a reduced efficiency of priming as compared with standard virus. Mice primed with a mixture of wt and DI virus showed reduced proliferation compared with mice primed with wt virus. When histocompatible target cells were sensitized by pure DI particles, they were neither recognized nor lysed by CD8⁺ CTL. Cells co-infected with wt and DI particles were not as readily lysed by CD8⁺ CTL as cells infected by VSV alone. The extent of this reduction was dependent on the concentration of DI particles. This suggests that DI particles may have prevented the proper presentation of endogenously synthesized Ag for recognition by CD8⁺ CTL. Metabolic labeling studies indicated that the presence of DI particles suppressed the synthesis of viral proteins in dually infected cells. However, CD4⁺ T lymphocyte clones recognized and efficiently lysed histocompatible Ia⁺ cells infected with DI particles alone or co-infected with replication-competent and defective virus.