Immunology of Marek's disease virus infection in chickens

鸡马立克氏病病毒感染的免疫学研究

• 批准号: 250277-2011
• 负责人: Sharif, Shayan
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=570870
• 关键词: Immunology; Marek; disease; virus; infection

Animal infectious diseases are of great importance to human and animal health. Moreover, these diseases impose significant economic losses to the food animal industry. Marek's disease (MD) is a disease of chickens caused by a virus, Marek's disease virus or MDV, and marked by formation of lymphomas, or cancer of immune system cells. This disease provides a unique model for studying the role of immune system and the genes, which control the immune mediators, in conferring resistance to disease. Resistance to MD is genetically controlled and several genes have been shown to play a role in immunity. Moreover, this is probably the first cancer against which a commercial vaccine became available. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which vaccines can prevent disease. Also, the vaccine is not effective at eliminating or reducing virus shedding from the infected birds. Virus shedding predisposes other birds to infection and, more importantly, creates an opportunity for the virus to enhance its disease-causing capacity. The proposed program is intended to investigate, at the molecular and cellular levels, induction and regulation of chicken immune response against MDV infection. Cells of the immune system, such as T cells, have been shown to be important in protection against viral insults. The objectives of this program are to: 1- identify the molecular determinants of MDV recognized by T cells leading to protection against disease, 2- examine T cell responses to the virus in feathers and lungs, which are critical tissues for MDV life cycle, 3- understand the events that occur in feathers rendering T cells unable to eliminate the virus in feathers. It is expected that findings of the proposed studies will expand our understanding of host-pathogen interactions and will also layout the foundation for future studies aimed at designing rational vaccines against MD, which are more effective at control of virus shedding.

动物传染病对人类和动物健康具有重要意义。此外，这些疾病对食用动物产业造成重大的经济损失。马立克氏病（MD）是由病毒（马立克氏病病毒或MDV）引起的鸡的疾病，并且以淋巴瘤或免疫系统细胞癌的形成为特征。该疾病为研究免疫系统和控制免疫介质的基因在赋予疾病抵抗力中的作用提供了独特的模型。对MD的抗性是遗传控制的，并且已经显示出几个基因在免疫中起作用。此外，这可能是第一个可以获得商业疫苗的癌症。然而，人们对疫苗预防疾病的机制知之甚少。此外，疫苗不能有效消除或减少受感染禽类的病毒脱落。病毒脱落使其他鸟类易于感染，更重要的是，为病毒增强其致病能力创造了机会。本研究拟从分子和细胞水平研究鸡对MDV感染的免疫应答的诱导和调控。免疫系统的细胞，如T细胞，已被证明在保护免受病毒侵害方面是重要的。该计划的目标是：1-确定T细胞识别的MDV分子决定因素，从而保护免受疾病的侵害，2-检查羽毛和肺中的T细胞对病毒的反应，这是MDV生命周期的关键组织，3-了解羽毛中发生的事件，使T细胞无法消除羽毛中的病毒。预计拟议研究的结果将扩大我们对宿主-病原体相互作用的理解，并为未来旨在设计更有效控制病毒脱落的MD合理疫苗的研究奠定基础。