Heterologous immunity: Immunopathology, autoimmunity and protection during viral infections

Abstract

Heterologous immunity is a common phenomenon present in all infections. Most of the time it is beneficial, mediating protective immunity, but in some individuals that have the wrong crossreactive response it leads to a cascade of events that result in severe immunopathology. Infections have been associated with autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and lupus erythematosis, but also with unusual autoimmune like pathologies where the immune system appears dysregulated, such as, sarcoidosis, colitis, panniculitis, bronchiolitis obliterans, infectious mononucleosis and even chronic fatigue syndrome. Here we review the evidence that to better understand these autoreactive pathologies it requires an evaluation of how T cells are regulated and evolve during sequential infections with different pathogens under the influence of heterologous immunity.

Keywords::

• Heterologous immunity
• T-cell cross-reactivity
• autoimmunity
• viruses
• immune modeling

Acknowledgments

The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not represent the official view of the NIH.

Declaration of interest: This research was supported by the US National Institute of Health (NIH) grants AI-49320, AI-42845, AI-054455, AI17672, AI46629, AI46578, AI49320, AR35506, DK-32520, an immunology training grant 5 T32 AI-07349-16 and DFG fellowship CO310/1-1. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.