[2 aspects of immunity in experimental flavivirus infections]

Experimentally, two aspects protective and damaging, of the immune response were demonstrated in the course of development of infection in mice inoculated with tickborne encephalitis (TBE) virus, Langat, yellow fever, dengue type 2 or West Nile viruses. The experiments were carried out in animals in which the functions of T- and B-lymphocytes, were temporarily inhibited with cyclophosphane (CP). It was demonstrated that the protective or damaging role of the immune response depended on the method of inoculation of the animals, the virus properties, and characteristics of the mouse strain. The conditions optimal for the development of immunopathological reactions in one infection (TBE) were not identical for those in another infection even when caused by an antigenically related virus (LANGAT). In mice of the AKR strain the possibility of producing a therapeutic effect upon treatment with CP of the animals inoculated with TBE virus was demonstrated.