Coxsackievirus immunization delays onset of diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice

Enteroviruses may be involved in the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes through different mechanisms including triggering of autoimmunity. The effect of immunization with coxsackievirus B4-E2 on diabetes incidence was studied in the non-obese diabetic mice, an animal model for human autoimmune insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The immunization delayed the onset of diabetes in the mice, and the effect was mediated at least partially by virus immunization-activated splenocytes as demonstrated by adoptive transfer experiments. Immunization resulted in a strong humoral immune response against the immunizing virus, formalin-inactivated coxsackievirus B4-E2. Cell-mediated immune response to virus antigen was characterised by interferon gamma and interleukin 10 secretion. The immunization also resulted in increased antibody levels against several beta-cell autoantigens. By using epitope mapping we were able to show that in addition to reactivity with the known epitopes of viral proteins and tyrosine phosphatase IA-2 or heat shock protein 60, responses to some other regions of autoantigens were enhanced. In preproinsulin, the response was restricted against an antigenic region earlier identified as DR4-dependent epitope. This reactivity can not be explained by homologous amino acid sequences and it is possible that enterovirus immunization might change the autoantigen specific TH1/TH2 balance in non-obese diabetic mice. In conclusion, our results suggest that coxsackievirus immunization increased humoral immune response to beta cell autoantigens and this was associated with a less destructive pathology for spontaneous diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice.