Skeletal Muscle in Influenza Virus Infection- a Key Player or a Bystander?
Skeletal Muscle in Influenza Virus Infection- a Key Player or a Bystander?
Suresh V Kuchipudi* and Kin-Chow Chang
ABSTRACT
Skeletal muscle constitutes the largest soft tissue mass in the body whose principal roles are postural maintenance and locomotion. Comprising heterogeneous multi-nucleated fibres, skeletal muscle is one of more astounding and unusual tissues in the body in its ability to undergo dramatic phenotypic changes in response to physical demands, age and disease. The contributions of skeletal muscle to immune response and virus pathogenesis are increasingly recognized. Recent evidence strongly indicated that skeletal muscle cells fully support productive replication of influenza A virus (IAV) and could play an important role in disease outcome. We are of the opinion that skeletal muscle could be a key innate immune tissue/organ in the pathogenesis of influenza and other systemic viral infections which warrants further in-depth investigations.
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