Persistent Virus-Specific and Clonally Expanded Antibody-Secreting Cells Respond to Induced Self-antigen in the CNS

The authors profiled B cells from the central nervous system (CNS) of murine models of intracranial viral infections and autoimmunity, and identified a population of clonally expanded, antibody-secreting cells that had undergone class-switch recombination and extensive somatic hypermutation following intracranial infection with attenuated lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus.