TY - JOUR T1 - LATE-BREAKING ABSTRACT: Interleukin-33 augments rhinovirus-induced type 2 immune responses in people with asthma, but not in healthy donors JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2015.PA4369 VL - 46 IS - suppl 59 SP - PA4369 AU - John Upham AU - Megan Landgraf AU - Camilla Xi Y1 - 2015/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA4369.abstract N2 - Increasing evidence points to the importance of interleukin-33 (IL-33) in asthma pathogenesis. IL-33 can induce type 2 immune responses to allergens, though whether IL-33 can also modify cellular responses to respiratory viruses is not clear. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of IL-33 on cytokine release by rhinovirus (RV) stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and to determine whether such effects differ in asthmatic and healthy individuals. PBMC were isolated from 14 people with mild/moderate asthma and 22 healthy donors, exposed to IL-33 (10ng/ml) and activated with RV serotype 16 for 24h or 5 days. At 24h, IL-33 alone did not induce IFNα release, and did not alter virus-induced IFNα or CXCL10 release. At day 5, pre-exposure to IL-33 significantly enhanced virus-induced IL-5 and IL-13 release by cells from asthmatic donors (p<0.05 and p<0.01 respectively), but had no effect on IL-5 and IL-13 production by cells from healthy donors. In contrast, pre-exposure to IL-33 significantly enhanced virus-induced IFNγ release by cells from healthy donors (p<0.001), but had no effect on IFNγ release by cells from asthmatic donors. IL-33 had no effect on virus-induced changes in the expression of the costimulatory molecules CD40 and programmed death ligand-1 (PDL-1) on antigen presenting cells. These findings suggest that the effects of IL-33 on the antigen-specific recall response to RV differ in asthmatic and healthy individuals, and provide a potential mechanism by which RV infections in asthma might exacerbate type 2 immune responses and allergic airway inflammation. ER -