Antibodies Are Not Required for Immunity Against Some Viruses

[bayani]

Recently released, please comment; it would be interesting to get the view of virologists, and others in the Medical field.

"A new study turns the well established theory that antibodies are required for antiviral immunity upside down and reveals that an unexpected partnership between the specific and non-specific divisions of the immune system is critical for fighting some types of viral infections. The research, published online on March 1st in the journal Immunity by Cell Press, may lead to a new understanding of the best way to help protect those exposed to potentially lethal viruses, such as the rabies virus."

Read more: sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120301143426.htm

 

[rjh01]

Recently released, please comment; it would be interesting to get the view of virologists, and others in the Medical field.



Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120301143426.htm

I fixed your link. Here is the link to the paper http://labs.idi.harvard.edu/vonandrian/Pages/_Moseman Immunity online '12.pdf

Edit. It was published in Immunity journal http://www.cell.com/immunity/abstract/S1074-7613(12)00057-X?switch=standard

It has a very high impact factor (24.221) http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/621182/description

 

[Capsid]

This paper describes a mechanism by which the host can survive against lethal VSV infection by using mice that don't make antibodies but do have B cells. The B cells can provide provide cytokines that maintain a macrophage phenotype that can not replicate the VSV. This would seem to be quite specific to VSV which infect macrophages, such a mechanism would not necessarily work for say HIV which infects CD4 cells.

There are other anti-viral mechanisms too such as neutralising antibodies and cytotoxic T cells, in other words the immune system utilises a number of ways to control or prevent virus infections. This is just another such tool in its armoury.