These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Immune deviation and ocular infections with varicella zoster virus.
    Author: Kezuka T.
    Journal: Ocul Immunol Inflamm; 2004 Mar; 12(1):17-24. PubMed ID: 15209460.
    Abstract:
    Since experimental, herpes simplex virus-induced acute retinal necrosis (ARN) develops in mice only if the mice fail to acquire virus-specific delayed hypersensitivity (DH) and despite their production of anti-viral antibodies (i.e. ACAID), I investigated whether a similar situation exists for patients with either varicella zoster virus (VZV)-induced ARN or anterior uveitis caused by VZV. Patients with either acute VZV-induced ARN, anterior uveitis with dermatitis (herpes zoster ophthalmicus, ZO-AU), or anterior uveitis without dermatitis (zoster sine herpete, ZSH-AU) were skin-tested with VZV to evaluate DH. The formal diagnoses of ARN associated with VZV, ZO-AU, and ZSH-AU were established by PCR analysis of the ocular samples and/or by the Goldmann-Witmer coefficient to determine levels of local antibody production. ARN, ZO-AU, and ZSH-AU activity were assessed clinically, and DH skin tests were repeated three months after onset when ocular recovery had taken place. All patients with VZV-induced skin disease alone (control group) displayed intense DH when tested with VZV antigen. In contrast, subsets of patients with ARN or ZO-AU displayed loss of VZV-specific DH. Patients with the most severe ARN or ZO-AU had the lowest DH responses to VZV antigens. Serum anti-VZV antibody titers were higher in ARN patients than in normal controls, and the anti-viral titer correlated inversely with the intensity of anti-VZV DH responses. VZV-specific DH responses were restored in patients who recovered from ARN. Patients with ZSH-AU also failed to display VZV-specific DH. The absence of DH reactivity to VZV antigens (i.e. immune deviation) appears to be a concomitant feature of VZV uveitis of high intensity, implying that virus-specific DH may interfere with the emergence of VZV-induced ARN or anterior uveitis.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]