Although not the cause of the outbreak, LCMV was found to be a cause of nonbacterial or aseptic meningitis.In 1996, Peter Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, for their work with LCMV which led to a fundamental understanding of the adaptive immune response, MHC restriction. In the 1970s, studies concerning the importance of MHC locus were done exclusively in transplantation and tumor rejection. Taking this into consideration, Doherty and Zinkernagel were working on the response of mice to virus infections. They observed that T-cell receptors must recognise a complex of foreign antigen and an MHC antigen in order to destroy infected cells. Their key experiment involved harvesting of splenocytes containing LCMV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes(CTL) from an infected mouse strain A. These were then mixed in vitro with virus infected fibroblasts or macrophages from two different mouse strains, A and B. By the method of Cr-release cytotoxicity assay, thereby tagging the CTL with chromium-51 (Cr-51), the CTL destruction of infected cells was quantified by release of Cr-51. The results showed that CTL killed only the infected cells from strain A, and they did not lyse uninfected cells or infected cells from strain B. They concluded that these virus specific CTLs only lyse cells carrying the same molecules of the major histocompatibility site (MHC) as the CTLs themselves. Thus, the virus-specific CTLs are "MHC-restricted". This discovery lead to a greater understanding of an important aspect of the immune system. Spread
LCMV is naturally spread by the common house mouse, Mus musculus.
Morbidity and mortality rates vary with the species of animal and its age at infection, as well as the strain of the virus and route of exposure. Neonatally and congenitally infected mice remain asymptomatic for many months, but the onset of glomerulonephritis reduces overall life expectancy. The morbidity rate in naturally infected post-neonatal mice is unknown; however, subclinical disease may be the most common form, as few natural outbreaks have been reported. In hamsters, approximately half of all congenitally infected animals clear the virus when they are approximately three months old and remain healthy; the remaining animals develop chronic disease. Hamsters infected as adults usually remain asymptomatic. Callitrichid hepatitis is reported to be highly fatal in naturally infected marmosets and tamarins in zoos. Since 1980, 12 outbreaks with 57 deaths have been reported in the U.S. In experimentally infected rhesusmacaques, three of four animals became fatally ill when inoculation was by the intravenous route. In contrast, inoculation by the intragastric route usually led to asymptomatic infections, with occasional disease and few deaths. In pets
Pet rodents are not known to be natural reservoirs for lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. However, pets can become vectors if they are exposed to wild house mice in a breeding facility, pet store, or home. Such infections are rare. To date, (January 2017) documented infections in humans have occurred only after introduction to infected mice, guinea pigs, and hamsters, with the majority of cases transmitted by mice.