Macrophages and Dendritic Cells Are the Predominant Cells Infected in Measles in Humans

Abstract

We have brought together a unique collection of 23 human cases of measles infection and studied the types of cells that are infected. This work has not been done with modern technologies such as double labeling with antibodies and confocal microscopy in human cases primarily due to the fact that it is difficult to obtain the material because, fortunately, measles is fatal in only a very small fraction of infected patients. During the past decades, the receptors for measles virus have been elucidated and monkey models have been developed. We found that, in most cases, independently of whether the tissues were obtained early or later in the infection, the primary cell types that were infected were those of the immune system such as lymphocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. A very small number of epithelial cells were also found to be infected.

Authentic Modeling of Human Respiratory Virus Infection in Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Lung Organoids

“…The finding that infection of lung organoids recapitulates some of the hallmarks of illness for each respiratory virus we tested (e.g., epithelial sloughing and obstructed airways for RSV-infected cells versus no sloughing for HPIV3-infected cells) suggests that this model will be useful for studying pathogenesis; for example, it can be used to test hypotheses about the contribution of specific components of the human immune system to pathogenesis for each virus. For MeV, infection of airway epithelial cells is postulated to occur only after the initial viremia and to involve cell-to-cell contact between infected myeloid cells and epithelial cells (14) in the nonhuman primate model, though this is difficult to observe directly in studies involving human subjects (22). While the current lung organoid model cannot yet recapitulate these elements, interestingly in contrast with MeV in HAE (13, 23) and HPIV3 infection in the lung organoid model, MeV induces syncytia in the lung organoid model (most clearly seen 4 s into Movie S2 in the supplemental material).…”

Measles outbreaks in Italy: A paradigm of the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases in developed countries

“…a site of efficient MeV replication (16). After infection of lymphoid tissue (BALT and lymph nodes) the virus migrates to other tissues and organs through systemic dissemination of circulating infected CD150 + lymphocytes.…”

Viropathic multinuclear syncytial giant cells in bronchial fluid from a patient with COVID-19

“… 7 In our case, the viropathic multinucleated giant cells were of histiocytic origin. Thus, macrophages in COVID-19 infection may also be targets for COVID-19 beside pneumocytes as was described in pneumonia caused by measles, 8 even though a secondary reactive non-viropathic giant cell response to the viral infection as a cause of the observed changes cannot be excluded. The prominent neutrophilic inflammation in our case may be contributed to the superinfection with MRSA.…”