Host nutritional status and its effect on a viral pathogen

The nutritional status of the host has long been associated with both sever ity and susceptibility to infectious disease. The accepted model system pro poses that inadequate nutrition impairs the functioning of the immune syste m, thus resulting in increased susceptibility to infection. However, curren t work suggests that not only can the nutritional status of the host affect the immune response, but it can also affect the viral pathogen, In a mouse model, a benign strain of coxsackievirus B3 became virulent and caused myo carditis in selenium- and vitamin E-deficient mice. This change in pathogen icity was due to mutations in the viral genome, which changed an avirulent virus into a virulent one, Once these mutations occurred, even mice with no rmal nutriture developed disease from the mutated virus. These results sugg est that the oxidative stress status of the hose can have a profound influe nce on a viral pathogen.