2021 journal article
The role of Meq-vIL8 in regulating Marek’s disease virus pathogenesis
Journal of General Virology, 102(2).
author keywords: Marek's disease virus; Meq-vIL8; viral replication; pathogenesis; persistent neurological disease
MeSH headings : Animals; Cells, Cultured; Chick Embryo; DNA, Viral / genetics; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; Herpesvirus 2, Gallid / genetics; Herpesvirus 2, Gallid / metabolism; Oncogene Proteins, Viral / genetics; Oncogene Proteins, Viral / metabolism; Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics; Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism; Transfection; Virulence Factors; Virus Replication
TL;DR:
This study shows that Meq-vIL8 is an important virulence factor of MDV, and generates a recombinant MDV (MDV-meqΔSD) by mutating the splice donor site in the meq gene to abrogate the expression of Meq.
(via Semantic Scholar)
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
3. Good Health and Well-being
(Web of Science; OpenAlex)
Source: ORCID
Added: November 26, 2020
Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is a highly cell-associated oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that causes T cell lymphoma in chickens. MDV-encoded Meq and vIL8 proteins play important roles in transformation and early cytolytic infection, respectively. Previous studies identified a spliced transcript,meq-vIL8, formed by alternative splicing ofmeqandvIL8genes in MDV lymphoblastoid tumour cells. To determine the role of Meq-vIL8 in MDV pathogenesis, we generated a recombinant MDV (MDV-meqΔSD) by mutating the splice donor site in themeqgene to abrogate the expression of Meq-vIL8. As expected, our results show that MDV-meqΔSD virus grows similarly to the parental and revertant viruses in cell culture, suggesting that Meq-vIL8 is dispensable for MDV growthin vitro. We further characterized the pathogenic properties of MDV-meqΔSD virus in chickens. Our results show that lack of Meq-vIL8 did not affect virus replication during the early cytolytic phase, as determined by immunohistochemistry analysis and/or viral genome copy number, but significantly enhanced viral DNA load in the late phase of infection in the spleen and brain of infected chickens. In addition, we observed that abrogation of Meq-vIL8 expression reduced the mean death time and increased the prevalence of persistent neurological disease, common features of highly virulent strains of MDV, in inoculated chickens. In conclusion, our study shows that Meq-vIL8 is an important virulence factor of MDV.