IN-VIVO CLEARANCE OF JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS-VIRUS BY ADOPTIVELY TRANSFERRED VIRUS-SPECIFIC CYTOTOXIC T-LYMPHOCYTES

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a positive stranded RNA virus tha t belongs to the flavivirus group, JEV infection damages the central n ervous system (CNS) and is one of the main causative agents of acute e ncephalitis, H-2 restricted virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CT L) have been generated specifically against JEV in our laboratory and these CTL have been shown to protect mice against lethal challenge wit h JEV, Virus replication was found to be inhibited in the brains of an imals that mere adoptively transferred with JEV specific CTL as reveal ed by immunohistological staining as,veil as viral plaque assays. We f urther show that virus specific CTL could be recovered from such prote cted mice as long as 45 days after adoptive transfer.