Impact of Dietary Fiber on West Nile Virus Infection

Dietary fiber supports healthy gut bacteria and their production of short-chain fatty acids (SOFA), which promote anti-inflammatory cell development, in particular, regulatory T cells. It is thus beneficial in many diseases, including influenza infection. While disruption of the gut microbiota by antibiotic treatment aggravates West Nile Virus (WNV) disease, whether dietary fiber is beneficial is unknown. WNV is a widely-distributed neurotropic flavivirus that recruits inflammatory monocytes into the brain, causing life-threatening encephalitis. To investigate the impact of dietary fiber on WNV encephalitis, mice were fed on diets deficient or enriched with dietary fiber for two weeks prior to inoculation with WNV. To induce encephalitis, mice were inoculated intranasally with WNV and maintained on these diets. Despite increased fecal SOFA acetate and changes in gut microbiota composition, dietary fiber did not affect clinical scores, leukocyte infiltration into the brain, or survival. After the brain, highest virus loads were measured in the colon in neurons of the submucosal and myenteric plexuses. Associated with this, there was disrupted gut homeostasis, with shorter colon length and higher local inflammatory cytokine levels, which were not affected by dietary fiber. Thus, fiber supplementation is not effective in WNV encephalitis.