Impact of a Demyelination-Inducing Central Nervous System Virus on Expression of Demyelination Genes in Type 2 Lymphoid Cells

We recently reported the role of type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) in central nervous system (CNS) demyelination using a model of CNS demyelination involving recombinant herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) that constitutively expresses mouse interleukin 2 (HSV-IL-2). In this investigation, we studied how ILC2s respond to HSV-IL-2 at the cellular level using cytokine and gene expression profiling. ILC2s infected with HSV-IL-2 expressed higher levels of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), IL-5, IL-6, IL-13, IP-10, MIP-2, and RANTES, which include proinflammatory cytokines, than did those infected with parental control virus. In contrast, TH2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-9, which are typically expressed by ILC2s, were not induced upon HSV-IL-2 infection. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis of HSV-IL-2 infected ILC2s showed significant upregulation of over 350 genes and downregulation of 157 genes compared with parental virus-infected ILC2s. Gene Ontology (GO) term analysis indicated that genes related to "mitosis" and "inflammatory response" were among the upregulated genes, suggesting that HSV-IL-2 infection drives the excessive proliferation and atypical inflammatory response of ILC2s. This change in ILC2 activation state could underlie the pathology of demyelinating diseases. IMPORTANCE Innate lymphocytes have plasticity and can change functionality; type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) can convert to ILC1 or ILC3 cells or change their activation state to produce IL-17 or IL-10 depending on environmental cues. In this study, we investigated the gene and cytokine profiles of ILC2s, which play a major role in HSV-IL-2-induced CNS demyelination. ILC2s infected with HSV-IL-2 displayed a massive remodeling of cellular state. Additionally, ILC2s infected with HSV-IL-2 differed from those infected with parental HSV in cellular and viral gene expression profiles and in cytokine/chemokine induction, and they displayed enhanced activation and proinflammatory responses. These changes in ILC2 activation state could underlie the pathology of demyelinating diseases. These results also highlight the possible importance of pathogens as environmental cues to modify innate lymphocyte functionalities.