Figure 1

Decreased TMEV clearance in the CNS of TLR3 KO mice. (A) The level of infectious TMEV in the whole brain (BR) and spinal cord (SC) from wild type and TLR3 KO mice at 7 and 21 days postinfection (1 × 10⁶ PFU) was determined by plaque assays in BHK cells. (P < 0.05 at all time points based on the paired Student's t test). Data represent values from a representative experiment from three independent experiments conducted with CNS pools of three mice per group. The values given are means ± standard deviations of triplicates. Statistically significant differences were indicated with asterisks (*, P < 0.05; ***, P < 0.001). (B) CNS-infiltrating mononuclear cells from TMEV-infected wild type and TLR3 KO mice at 7 and 21 dpi. Numbers in FACS plots represent percentages in the CNS. Data are representative of three experiments using three mice per group. (C) Levels of IFN-γ producing CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ cells in the CNS were determined by intracellular staining after stimulation for 6 hr with 2 μM CD4 or CD8 viral epitope peptides. Numbers in the FACS plots represent % of IFN-γ producing CD4⁺ or CD8⁺ cells from total infiltrating CD4⁺ or CD8⁺ cells. The data represent three separate experiments using three mice per group. (D) Survival rate of wild type and TLR3KO mice after intraperitoneal infection with GDVII was monitored for 20 days. (E) Viral persistence levels in the brain (BR) and spinal cord (SC) of infected mice at 7 dpi (DPI) were determined by quantitative PCR. Data are expressed by fold induction after normalization to GAPDH mRNA levels. The values given are means ± standard deviations of triplicates. Statistically significant differences were indicated with asterisks (***, P < 0.001)