When a major branch of the mouse immune system is disabled, a normally harmless virus can rapidly mutate into a lethal one, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.The findings may help clinicians better understand how otherwise harmless viruses can cause severe disease among patients with weakened or suppressed immune systems, including AIDS patients, transplant recipients and patients with autoimmune diseases.“The virus exploits whatever little crack you give it in mice, so we’re very interested in finding out whether this also occurs in humans with weakened immune systems, ” says Anthony R. French, M.D., Ph.D., an instructor in pediatrics and first author of the study, which will be published in the June issue of the journal Immunity.
