Synergistic infection with murine cytomegalovirus and Candida albicans in mice

A previous report from this laboratory demonstrated that mice infected intraperitoneally with a 20% lethal inoculation of murine cytomegalovirus (CMV) exhibited markedly enhanced mortality rates (80%-100%) after an intravenous injection of a 0-20% lethal inoculum of Candida albicans. The current study revealed that mice infected with murine CMV alone had high titers of virus in spleen, liver, lung, and kidney from days 3 through 20, whereas those inoculated with C. albicans alone had a self-limited fungal infection involving only the kidney. In the combined murine CMV-C. albicans infection, the titers of murine CMV in tissues were changed very little. In contrast, C. albicans was recovered from multiple organs, and a progressive renal infection developed. This altered pathogenesis of the candida infection in murine CMV-infected mice resembled that produced by a 100% lethal inoculum of C. albicans alone. These results indicate that the murine CMV infection enhanced the susceptibility of mice to infection with C. albicans and suggest that death was due to progressive fungal infection of the kidney.