Exposure to urban air particulates alters the macrophage-mediated inflammatory response to respiratory viral infection.

Epidemiology studies associate increased pulmonary morbidity with episodes of high particulate air pollution (size range 0.1-10 microm diameter, PM10). Pneumonia, often viral in origin, is increased following episodes of high PM10 pollution. Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate how PM10 alters airway inflammatory responses to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a frequent cause of viral pneumonia in infants and the elderly. Supernatants of unexposed and PM10-exposed alveolar macrophage (AM) cultured with uninfected or RSV-infected airway epithelial cells were assessed for a number of chemokines responsible for inflammatory responses in the lung. AM exposure to PM10 in the absence of infection resulted in a significant increase in interleukin (IL)-8 and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1alpha production but not in MIP-1beta or monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1. AM responded to RSV infection by the production of IL-8, MIP-1alpha, MIP-1beta, and MCP-1, while RANTES was derived solely from the RSV-infected bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B. In the presence of PM10, the AM response to RSV was blunted. RSV-induced MCP-1 was significantly decreased, and the levels of MIP-1 and IL-8 were lower than expected from a combined response to PM10 and RSV. Furthermore, AM analyzed for uptake of virus showed a 50% decrease in viral antigen when exposed to PM10 RSV-induced production of RANTES by epithelial cells was decreased in the presence of AM but not affected by PM10 exposure. Taken together, these results suggest that AM-regulated inflammatory responses to viral infection are altered by exposure to PM10 in a manner that may result in increased spread of infection and thus may increase viral pneumonia-related hospital admissions.