Coxsackievirus B-3-induced myocarditis. Virus and actinomycin D treatment of myocytes induces novel antigens recognized by cytolytic T lymphocytes.

BALB/c mice inoculated with 6 x 10(4) plaque-forming units of a myocarditic variant of Coxsackievirus, group B, type 3 (CVB3M) developed three distinct CTL populations recognizing putative virion (virus specific CTL, VCTL), normally expressed heart (autoreactive CTL, ACTL), and aberrant metabolic (MCTL) Ag. Induction of the MCTL-specific Ag on cardiocytes correlated with the ability of the myocarditic viruses and actinomycin D to interfere with cellular metabolism as measured by 3H-uridine and 3H-leucine incorporation. ACTL specifically lysed uninfected cardiocyte targets, but ACTL Ag expression was lost soon after infection of monocytes only to reappear 6 h later. MCTL and VCTL could be separated by adsorption to myocytes treated with either actinomycin D- or UV-inactivated CVB3M. MCTL cross-reactively lysed myocytes infected with another virus suppressing 3H-uridine incorporation (encephalomyocarditis virus) but failed to react to targets infected with viruses not inhibiting cell metabolism. VCTL specifically lysed only cells infected with the homologous virus. ACTL belonged to the CD8 (Lyt-2+) T cell subset, whereas both VCTL and MCTL were CD4 (L3T4+) T cells.