Interactions of Host’s Innate and Adaptive Immune Components in the Pathogenesis of Viral Encephalitis: a Review

Abstract

Viral encephalitis has attracted the attention of researchers and physicians for millennia. In almost all cases, specific causes of central nervous system (CNS) syndromes of viral origin have been difficult and sometime impossible to identify. Immunological mechanisms involved in viral encephalitis are also diverse and complex which greatly limit the advent of modern antiviral therapies against viral encephalitis. This review will focus on the immunopathogenesis of viral encephalitis. Although a considerable emphasis will be placed on Japanese encephalitis, other viral infections of the CNS will be discussed. Role of Treg and Th17 cells, their plasticity and balance in viral encephalitis will be discussed with great details.