Abstract
The composition of the human microbiome is considered a major source of interindividual variation in immunity and, by extension, susceptibility to diseases. Intestinal bacteria have been the major focus of research. However, diverse communities of viruses that infect microbes and the animal host cohabitate the gastrointestinal tract and collectively constitute the gut virome. Although viruses are typically investigated as pathogens, recent studies highlight a relationship between the host and animal viruses in the gut that is more akin to host–microbiome interactions and includes both beneficial and detrimental outcomes for the host. These viruses are likely sources of immune variation, both locally and extraintestinally. In this review, we describe the components of the gut virome, in particular mammalian viruses, and their ability to modulate host responses during homeostasis and disease.
Footnotes
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants HL123340, DK093668, DK103788, and AI121244, a Faculty Scholar grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Stony Wold–Herbert Fund, the Merieux Institute, the Rainin Foundation, a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases award (to K.C.), a Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship, and a Vilcek Fellowship (to J.A.N.).
Abbreviations used in this article:
- CVB
- coxsackievirus B
- DC
- dendritic cell
- DSS
- dextran sodium sulfate
- ERV
- endogenous retrovirus
- FMT
- fecal microbiome transplantation
- GVHD
- graft-versus-host disease
- γHV-68
- gammaherpesvirus 68
- IBD
- inflammatory bowel disease
- IFN-I
- type I IFN
- ILC3
- group 3 innate lymphoid cell
- IRF1
- IFN regulatory factor 1
- MDA5
- melanoma differentiation–associated protein 5
- MNV
- murine norovirus
- NLR
- Nod-like receptor
- PRR
- pattern recognition receptor
- RIG-I
- retinoic acid inducible gene I
- T1D
- type 1 diabetes
- VRE
- vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus.
- Received May 2, 2018.
- Accepted May 21, 2018.
- Copyright © 2018 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.
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