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Background: Pseudorabies virus (PRV) of the family Herpesviridae is the causative agent of Aujeszky's disease. Attenuation of PRV by serial passaging in vitro is a well-established method; however, the dynamic variations occurring on viral genome during this process have not been characterized. Methods: Genome sequencing and comparative genomic analyses of a virulent pseudorabies virus and a series of its plaque-purified strains via serial passaging in vitro were performed, and the properties in vitro and in vivo of which were further characterized. Results: Compared to the parental virus, replication in vitro was enhanced in the highly passaged F50, F91, and F120. In contrast, lethality in mice decreased gradually with passage number. Genome sequencing of F50, F91, and F120 showed deletion of a large fragment containing gE, which is likely related to their attenuation. In addition, single nucleotide variations were identified in many genes of F50, F91, and F120. In-frame and frameshift indels were also detected in specific genes of passaged strains. Particularly frameshift mutations were observed in highly passaged strains, resulting in a truncated but overexpressed pUL46. Conclusion: During attenuation of PRV by serial passaging in Vero cells, dynamic variation patterns including a large deletion, single nucleotide variations, small in-frame indels, and also frameshifts mutations successively emerged, contributing to evolution of the viral population and enabling the gradual attenuation of the virus. These data provide clues to better understand PRV attenuation during passaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Currently, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is one of the most economically important viral pathogens in swine in most countries, especially China. Two PRRSV attenuated live vaccine strains (HuN4-F112 and CH-1R) are currently widely used in China. Our previous study showed that HuN4-F112, but not CH-1R, induced high anti-nucleocapsid (N) antibody and neutralizing antibody (NA) titers. Additionally, sera from HuN4-F112 inoculated pigs induced low cross neutralization of CH-1R., Methods: In the present study, 6 chimeric viruses through exchanging 5' untranslated region (UTR) + open reading frame (ORF)1a, ORF1b, and ORF2-7 + 3'UTR between HuN4-F112 and CH-1R were constructed and rescued based on the infectious clones of rHuN4-F112 and rCH-1R. The characteristics of these viruses were investigated in vitro and vivo., Results: All the three fragments, 5'UTR + ORF1a, ORF1b, and ORF2-7 + 3'UTR, could affect the replication efficiencies of rHuN4-F112 and rCH-1R in vitro. Additionally, both 5'UTR + ORF1a and ORF2-7 + 3'UTR affected the anti-N antibody and NA responses targeting rHuN4-F112 and rCH-1R in piglets., Conclusions: The 5'UTR + ORF1a region of HuN4-F112 played a key role in inducing NAs in piglets. Furthermore, we confirmed for the first time that ORF1a contains a neutralization region. This study provides important information that can be used for further study of the generation of anti-PRRSV NAs.

Background: p53 is a tumor suppressor that contributes to the host immune response against viral infections in addition to its well-established protective role against cancer development. In response to influenza A virus (IAV) infection, p53 is activated and plays an essential role in inhibiting IAV replication. As a transcription factor, p53 regulates the expression of a range of downstream responsive genes either directly or indirectly in response to viral infection. We compared the expression profiles of immune-related genes between IAV-infected wild-type p53 (p53WT) and p53-deficient (p53KO) mice to gain an insight into the basis of p53-mediated antiviral response., Methods: p53KO and p53WT mice were infected with influenza A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 (PR8) strain. Clinical symptoms and body weight changes were monitored daily. Lung specimens of IAV-infected mice were collected for analysis of virus titers and gene expression profiles. The difference in immune-related gene expression levels between IAV-infected p53KO and p53WT mice was comparatively determined using microarray analysis and confirmed by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction., Results: p53KO mice showed an increased susceptibility to IAV infection compared to p53WT mice. Microarray analysis of gene expression profiles in the lungs of IAV-infected mice indicated that the increased susceptibility was associated with significantly changed expression levels in a range of immune-related genes in IAV-infected p53KO mice. A significantly attenuated expression of Ifng (encoding interferon (IFN)-gamma), Irf7 (encoding IFN regulator factor 7), and antiviral genes, such as Mx2 and Eif2ak2 (encoding PKR), were observed in IAV-infected p53KO mice, suggesting an impaired IFN-mediated immune response against IAV infection in the absence of p53. In addition, dysregulated expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, such as Ccl2 (encoding MCP-1), Cxcl9, Cxcl10 (encoding IP-10), and Tnf, were detected in IAV-infected p53KO mice during early IAV infection, reflecting an aberrant inflammatory response., Conclusion: Lack of p53 resulted in the impaired expression of genes involved in IFN signaling and the dysregulated expression of cytokine and chemokine genes in IAV-infected mice, suggesting an essential role of p53 in the regulation of antiviral and inflammatory responses during IAV infection.

Background: Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) continues to be an important problem for the swine industry. Inactivated vaccines and modified-live virus vaccines are widely used in the field; however, the efficacy of these PRRSV vaccines is suboptimal due to poor immunogenicity. Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) has been extensively used as an effective genetic and protein adjuvant to enhance the efficiencies vaccines expressing tumor or pathogen antigens. The purpose of this study was to determine if GM-CSF could increase the efficiency of PRRSV vaccine., Methods: The GM-CSF gene was inserted in the HuN4-F112 vaccine strain by overlap PCR. The expression of GM-CSF by the recombinant virus was confirmed with methods of indirect immunofluorescent assay (IFA) and Western blotting. The stability of recombinant virus was assessed by cDNA sequence and IFA after 20 passages. To detect the biological activity of GM-CSF expressed by the recombinant virus, bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) were isolated and co-cultured with the recombinant virus or parental virus and the surface phenotypes of BMDCs were examined by flow cytometric analysis. The cytokines secreted by BMDCs infected with PRRSV, or treated with LPS, GM-CSF or medium alone were evaluated by ProcartaPlexTM Multiplex Immunoassays and qRT-PCR., Results: A novel modified-live PRRSV vaccine strain expressing GM-CSF (rHuN4-GM-CSF) was successfully constructed and rescued. The GM-CSF protein was stable expressed in recombinant virus-infected cells after 20 passages. Analysis of virus replication kinetics showed that the novel vaccine strain expressing GM-CSF had a similar replication rate as the parental virus. In vitro studies showed that infection of porcine BMDCs with rHuN4-GM-CSF resulted in increased surface expression of MHCI+, MHCII + and CD80/86+ that was dependent on virus expressed GM-CSF. The expression of representative cytokines was significantly up-regulated when BMDCs were incubated with the recombinant GM-CSF expressing virus., Conclusions: Our results indicated that the expression of GM-CSF during infection with a vaccine strain could enhance the activation of BMDCs and increase cytokine response, which is expected to result in higher immune responses and may improve vaccine efficacy against PRRSV infection.

Background: Vaccination is considered as the most effective preventive method to control influenza. The hallmark of influenza virus is the remarkable variability of its major surface glycoproteins, HA and NA, which allows the virus to evade existing anti-influenza immunity in the target population. So it is necessary to develop a novel vaccine to control animal influenza virus. Also we know that the ectodomain of influenza matrix protein 2 (M2e) is highly conserved in animal influenza A viruses, so a vaccine based on the M2e could avoid several drawbacks of the traditional vaccines. In this study we designed a novel tetra-branched multiple antigenic peptide (MAP) based vaccine, which was constructed by fusing four copies of M2e to one copy of foreign T helper (Th) cell epitope, and then investigated its immune responses., Results: Our results show that the M2e-MAP induced strong M2e-specific IgG antibody,which responses following 2 doses immunization in the presence of Freunds' adjuvant. M2e-MAP vaccination limited viral replication substantially. Also it could attenuate histopathological damage in the lungs of challenged mice and counteracted weight loss. M2e-MAP-based vaccine protected immunized mice against the lethal challenge with PR8 virus., Conclusions: Based on these findings, M2e-MAP-based vaccine seemed to provide useful information for the research of M2e-based influenza vaccine. Also it show huge potential to study vaccines for other similarly viruses.

Background: Nowadays, PRRS has become one of the most economically important infectious diseases of pig worldwide. To better characterize and understand the molecular basis of PRRSV virulence determinants, it would be important to develop the infectious cDNA clones. In this regard, HuN4-F112, a live-attenuated North-American-type PRRSV vaccine strain, could serve as an excellent model., Results: In the study, genomic sequence of HuN4-F112, an attenuated vaccine virus derived from the highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) HuN4 strain, was determined and its full-length cDNA was cloned. Capped RNA was transcribed in vitro from the cDNA clone and transfected into BHK-21 cells. The supernatant from transfected monolayers were serially passaged in Marc-145 cells. The rescued virus exhibited a similar growth pattern to its parental virus in Marc-145 cells with peak titers at 48 h post-infection., Conclusion: In conclusion, we rescued virus from an infectious cDNA clone of attenuated vaccine. It is possible in the future that a new attenuated PRRSV vaccine with broader specificity and good immunogenicity can be designed in vitro via an infectious cDNA clone platform coupled with validated information on virulence determinants.

A recombinant plasmid that co-expressed ubiquitin and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) virus capsid protein (Cap), denoted as pc-Ub-Cap, and a plasmid encoding PCV2 virus Cap alone, denoted as pc-Cap, were transfected into 293T cells. Indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) and confocal microscopy were performed to measure the cellular expression of Cap. Three groups of mice were then vaccinated once every three weeks for a total of three doses with pc-Ub-Cap, pc-Cap or the empty vector pCAGGS, followed by challenging all mice intraperitoneally with 0.5 mL 10⁶·⁵ TCID₅₀/mL PCV2. To characterize the protective immune response against PCV2 infection in mice, assays of antibody titer (including different IgG isotypes), flow cytometric analysis (FCM), lymphocyte proliferation, cytokine production and viremia were evaluated. The results showed that pc-Ub-Cap and pc-Cap were efficiently expressed in 293T cells. However, pc-Ub-Cap-vaccinated animals had a significantly higher level of Cap-specific antibody and induced a stronger Th1 type cellular immune response than did pc-Cap-vaccinated animals, suggesting that ubiquitin conjugation improved both the cellular and humoral immune responses. Additionally, viral replication in blood was lower in the pc-Ub-Cap-vaccinated group than in the pc-Cap and empty vector groups, suggesting that the protective immunity induced by pc-Ub-Cap is superior to that induced by pc-Cap.

Twenty-seven nanopeptides derived from the matrix (M) protein of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) were screened for their ability to elicit a recall interferon-γ (IFN-γ) response from the splenocytes of BALB/c mice following DNA vaccination and a booster vaccination with recombinant vaccinia virus rWR-PRRSV-M. We identified two peptides (amino acid residues K93FITSRCRL and F57GYMTFVHF) as CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. These peptides elicited significant numbers of IFN-γ secreting cells, compared with other M nonapeptides and one irrelevant nonapeptide. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the former is an H-2Kd-restricted CTL epitope, and the latter is an H-2Dd-restricted CTL epitope. Multiple amino acid sequence alignment among different PRRSV M sequences submitted to GenBank indicated that these two CTL epitopes are strongly conserved, and they should therefore be considered for further research on the mechanisms of cellular immune responses to PRRSV.

Background: Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), as a re-emerging virus that causes 10,000-15,000 human deaths from encephalitis in the world each year, has had a significant impact on public health. Pigs are the natural reservoirs of JEV and play an important role in the amplification, dispersal and epidemiology of JEV. The nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) of JEV possesses enzymatic activities of serine protease, helicase and nucleoside 5'-triphosphatase, and plays important roles in viral replication and pathogenesis., Results: We characterized the NS3 protein of a neurovirulent strain of JEV (SH-JEV01) isolated from a field-infected pig. The NS3 gene of the JEV SH-JEV01 strain is 1857 bp in length and encodes protein of approximately 72 kDa with 99% amino acid sequence identity to that of the representative immunotype strain JaGAr 01. The NS3 protein was detectable 12 h post-infection in a mouse neuroblastoma cell line, Neuro-2a, and was distributed in the cytoplasm of cells infected with the SH-JEV01 strain of JEV. In the brain of mice infected with the SH-JEV01 strain of JEV, NS3 was detected in the cytoplasm of neuronal cells, including pyramidal neurons of the cerebrum, granule cells, small cells and Purkinje cells of the cerebellum., Conclusions: The NS3 protein of a neurovirulent strain of JEV isolated from a pig was characterized. It is an approximately 72 kDa protein and distributed in the cytoplasm of infected cells. The Purkinje cell of the cerebellum is one of the target cells of JEV infection. Our data should provide some basic information for the study of the role of NS3 in the pathogenesis of JEV and the immune response.