Neurotropic Virus-Induced Meningoencephalomyelitis

Abstract

Meningoencephalomyelitis emanates under the umbrella relating inflammatory changes of the Central Nervous System (CNS). Meningitis denotes inflammation in the meningeal layers, encephalitis is an acute diffuse inflammation of the brain, and inflammation in the spinal cord is denoted as myelitis. These can be interrelated or independent of each other depending on the etiology. The entire mechanism of meningoencephalomyelitis is governed by an acute innate inflammatory branch followed by a chronic progressive, adaptive branch of immunity with clinical signs like hyperthermia, weight loss, hypoxia, leukocytosis. This book chapter will focus on viral-induced meningitis, encephalitis, and myelitis. Thirty years of experience working with a murine-β-coronavirus (m-CoV); Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV)-A59 induced experimental model system provided us a thorough understanding of neuroglial cell-mediated acute neuroinflammation, denoted by the accumulation of leukocyte-common-antigen (LCA) positive or CD45+ leukocytes in perivascular infiltrates referred to as perivascular cuff formation and microglial nodules in the brain parenchyma, which mimics specific pathology of human neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Additionally, in this chapter, we summarized the role of CNS resident microglial activation and its interaction with peripheral migratory T cells in mounting neuropathogenesis and host immunity in different families of neurotrophic encephalomyelitis viruses that cause CNS inflammation.