ABSTRACT

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is an often unrecognized cause of sporadic or epidemic, acquired or congenital infections in humans. This prototypic member of the Arenaviridae family was discovered in 1933 by Armstrong and colleagues during the study of samples from a St. Louis encephalitis epidemic [1]. It was soon found to be a cause of aseptic meningitis [2] and to be identical to a pathogen that chronically infected mouse colonies [3]. By the 1960s, several other viruses had been discovered that shared common morphological, serological, and biochemical features. These ndings led to the establishment of the new virus family Arenaviridae in 1970 [4]. The study of mice infected with LCMV had showed that LCMV is a fascinating virus, which became one of the best experimental systems for studying viral immunology and pathogenesis. Studies on the immune response to this virus have provided a foundation for our understanding of many fundamental immunological concepts including major histocompatibility complex (MHC) restriction in T-cell recognition, immunological tolerance, cytotoxic T lymphocytes and their roles in viral clearance, immunopathology, and immunological memory. Investigations using the LCMV model have revealed the ability of noncytolytic persistent riboviruses to avoid elimination by the host immune responses, and to induce disease by interfering with specialized functions of infected cells. These ndings raise the possibility of viral involvement in a variety of human diseases of unknown etiology. Moreover, there is

increasing evidence that LCMV might be a neglected human pathogen with signicant clinical implications [5-8].