Opposing effects of CXCR3 and CCR5 deficiency on CD8+ T cell-mediated inflammation in the central nervous system of virus-infected mice

T cells play a key role in the control of viral infection in the CNS but may also contribute to immune-mediated cell damage. To study the redundancy of the chemokine receptors CXCR3 and CCR5 in regulating virus-induced CD8(+) T cell-mediated inflammation in the brain, CXCR3/CCR5 double-deficient mice were generated and infected intracerebrally with noncytolytic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Because these chemokine receptors are mostly expressed by overlapping subsets of activated CD8+ T cells, it was expected that absence of both receptors would synergistically impair effector T cell invasion and therefore protect mice against the otherwise fatal CD8(+) T cell-mediated immune attack. Contrary to expectations, the accumulation of mononuclear cells in cerebrospinal fluid was only slightly delayed compared with mice with normal expression of both receptors. Even more surprising, CXCR3/CCR5 double-deficient mice were more susceptible to intracerebral infection than CXCR3-deficient mice. Analysis of effector T cell generation revealed an accelerated antiviral CD8(+) T cell response in CXCR3/CCR5 double-deficient mice. Furthermore, while the accumulation of CD8(+) T cells in the neural parenchyma was significantly delayed in both CXCR3- and CXCR3/CCR5-deficient mice, more CD8(+) T cells were found in the parenchyma of double-deficient mice when these were analyzed around the time when the difference in clinical outcome becomes manifest. Taken together, these results indicate that while CXCR3 plays an important role in controlling CNS inflammation, other receptors but not CCR5 also contribute significantly. Additionally, our results suggest that CCR5 primarily functions as a negative regulator of the antiviral CD8(+) T cell response.