Rhinoviruses in the pathogenesis of asthma: the bronchial epithelium as a major disease target.

摘要

In the 1950s and early 1960s, David Tyrrell described newly identified small RNA viruses, human rhinoviruses (HRVs), as the cause of the common cold. With more than 100 serotypes comprising major and minor subgroups, HRVs preferentially infect nasal epithelial cells through the intercellular adhesion molecule 1 and low-density lipo-protein receptors, respectively. Virus internalization also involves activation of the acid sphyngomyelinase, which transforms membrane rafts into ceramide-enriched membrane platforms, followed by activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase by the small G protein Rho A. Until the 1990s, HRVs could only be identified by their cytopathic effect on cultured He La cells; however, the advent of improved nucleic acid-based detection methods has provided a diagnostic tool for this and other respiratory viruses. Stress and a lowering of body temperature predispose to HRV infection, but usually the symptoms are mild and transient, being limited to corrhyza and pharyngitis, with virus nucleic acid being detected in nasopharyn-geal, tonsillar, and middle ear fluids.