PAST AND PRESENT VACCINE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES FOR THE CONTROL OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE
V. BALAMURUGAN1, R. MANOJ KUMAR1, V.V.S. SURYANARAYANA2*
1 Division of Virology, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteswar, Uttaranchal-263 138, India
2 Molecular Virology Laboratory, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Hebbal, Bangalore, India
Received May 13, 2004; accepted November 10, 2004
Summary. – Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus (FMDV) was the first animal virus to be identified. Since then, it has become a model system in animal virology and more information has been obtained about FMDV. The disease causes heavy economic crises in enzootic countries both due to loss of animal health and productivity. The only way of its control in an enzootic area is strict vaccination and restricted animal movement. The first experimental vaccine against FMD was made in 1925 using formaldehyde inactivation of cattle tongue infected with the virus and this approach remained the basic one until late 1940s. Antigenic plurality and continuous co-circulation of different serotypes in a given geographical region and persistence of virus in infected or vaccinated animals make the disease very difficult to control. The latter is solely based upon the application of isolation, slaughter or aphtisation, and vaccination. With the advent of recombinant DNA technology, recombinant protein and/or DNA-based vaccines are being tested in various heterologous systems for development of FMD vaccines. The subunit vaccines, synthetic peptide vaccines, DNA vaccines, cytokine-enhanced DNA vaccines, recombinant empty capsid vaccines, chimeric viral vaccines, genetically engineered attenuated vaccines, recombinant viral vector vaccines, self-replicating genetic vaccines and transgenic plants with expressed FMDV proteins represent the present vaccine development strategies for control of FMD.
Key words: foot-and-mouth disease; Foot-and-mouth disease virus; vaccine; development; strategies
Acta virologica 48: 201 – 214, 2004
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PROSPECTS FOR HEPATITIS C VACCINE
G.M. BHOPALE*, R.K. NANDA
Research and Development Division, Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd., Pimpri, Pune 411018, India
Received May 17, 2004; accepted November 4, 2004
Summary. – Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide. Unfortunately, neither a vaccine nor any effective therapy is available. Efforts are now directed towards the development of an effective vaccine besides chemotherapy. This review briefly summarizes the properties of an effective vaccine for the control of HCV infection. The mechanisms of protective immune response induced by HCV are not well understood. It is presumed that humoral and cellular immune responses play an important role. Even though there are various obstacles in the development of HCV vaccine, we describe a few promising approaches such as DNA vaccine, recombinant virus vaccine, HCV-like particles (HCV-LPs), peptide-based vaccine and plant-derived recombinant subunit vaccine.
Key words: Hepatitis C virus; vaccine; protective immune response
Acta virologica 48: 215 – 221, 2004
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ISOLATION OF BOVINE VIRAL DIARRHEA VIRUS 1,
A PESTIVIRUS FROM AUTOPSIED LAMB SPECIMEN
FROM TAMIL NADU, INDIA
P. YADAV, P.V. BARDE, R. JADI, M.D. GOKHALE, A. BASU, M.V. JOSHI, R. MEHLA, S.R.P. KUMAR, S.S. ATHAVALE, D.T. MOURYA*
National Institute of Virology, 20-A, Dr. Ambedkar Road, Pune 411 001, India
Received April 14, 2004; accepted November 3, 2004
Summary. – An epizootic of febrile illness among the Madras red breed of sheep had occurred in 1994 in Verrapuram, Chennai, India. The epizootic was suspected as Rift Valley fever (RVF)-like sickness based on clinical features. However, its etiological agent could neither be isolated nor implicated conclusively. During the post-epizootic period a male lamb died of similar clinical features and the spleen was immediately collected. Inoculation of spleen suspension in infant mouse brain yielded a virus that was serially passaged in infant mice and rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells. Electron microscopic observations revealed virus particles resembling flaviviruses. RT-PCR performed on extracted total RNA from infected cells and mouse brains with flavivirus-specific or RVF-specific primers gave negative results. However, an amplicon of 280 bp was obtained with pestivirus-specific primers from the 5'-UTR. Further, a nested PCR yielded a product of 157 bp. Nucleotide sequencing of the 157 bp product showed 100% homology to BVDV-1. Western blot analysis with a flavivirus envelope protein-specific MAb revealed three proteins of 33 K, 45 K and 55 K. Further studies suggested that the 33 K and 55 K proteins were glycosylated. This is the first report of isolation of BVDV-1 from a lamb in India.
Key words: Bovine viral diarrhea virus 1; flavivirus; nested PCR; nucleotide sequencing; pestivirus; RT-PCR; Rift Valley fever; virion morphology; Western blot analysis
Acta virologica 48: 223 – 227, 2004
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MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF A STRAIN
OF CUCUMBER MOSAIC VIRUS BASED ON COAT PROTEIN AND MOVEMENT PROTEIN GENES
A. SRIVASTAVA1, G. CHANDRA2, S.K. RAJ1*
1 Molecular Virology Division, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow-220 001, India
Received January 7, 2004; accepted November 9, 2004
Summary. – Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) A strain (CMV-A) isolated from Amaranthus tricolor was partially characterized at molecular level. Complete coat protein (CP) and movement protein (MP) ORFs were cloned and sequenced. The 657 bp region of CP gene and the 840 bp region of MP gene encode 218 and 276 amino acids, respectively. CP, at nucleotide level, showed 90–98% sequence identity with the CMV subgroup I and less than 80% with the CMV subgroup II, it showed at amino acid level 92–96% identity with the subgroup I and 74–87% with the subgroup II. The nucleotide and amino acid sequence identities of MP ranged in 91–94% and 92–96%, respectively with the subgroup I but in 81–83% with the subgroup II. Phylogenetic trees generated from nucleotide and amino acid sequences of both CP and MP genes identified the virus strain as a member of the subgroup IB. CMV-A CP also displayed a remarkably higher homology with Indian strains of CMV than with other CMV strains and formed a separate cluster within the subgroup IB.
Key words: Cucumber mosaic virus; coat protein; movement protein; genes; sequence identity; phylogenetic analysis
Acta virologica 48: 229 – 239, 2004
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ANTITUMOR ACTIVITY OF BACTERIOPHAGES IN MURINE EXPERIMENTAL CANCER MODELS CAUSED POSSIBLY BY INHIBITION OF b3 INTEGRIN SIGNALING PATHWAY
K. DABROWSKA1, A. OPOLSKI1, J. WIETRZYK1, K. SWITALA-JELEN1, J. BORATYNSKI1, A. NASULEWICZ1, L. LIPINSKA1, A. CHYBICKA2, M. KUJAWA3, M. ZABEL4, B. DOLINSKA-KRAJEWSKA4, E. PIASECKI1, B. WEBER-DABROWSKA1, J. RYBKA1, J. SALWA1, E. WOJDAT1, M. NOWACZYK5, A. GORSKI1,5*
1 Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, 53-114 Wroclaw, Poland
2 Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology, Medical University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
3 Centre of Biostructure, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
4 Department of Histology and Embryology, Medical University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
5 Institute of Transplantology, Medical University of Warsaw, 02-006 Warsaw, Poland
Received May 7, 2004; accepted October 22, 2004
Summary. – Bacteriophages (phages) as bacterial viruses are generally believed to have no intrinsic tropism for mammalian cells. In this study the interactions between phages and various eukaryotic cells were investigated. Binding of phages to the membranes of cancer and normal blood cells was observed. Moreover, it was shown that the wild-type phage T4 (wtT4) and its substrain HAP1 with enhanced affinity for melanoma cells inhibit markedly and significantly experimental lung metastasis of murine B16 melanoma cells by 47% and 80%, respectively. A possible molecular mechanism of these effects, namely a specific interaction between the Lys-Gly-Asp motif of the phage protein 24 and b3-integrin receptors on target cells is proposed. It was also shown that anti-b3 antibodies and synthetic peptides mimicking natural b3 ligands inhibit the phage binding to cancer cells. This is in line with the well-described b3 integrin-dependent mechanism of tumor metastasis. It is concluded that the blocking of b3 integrins by phage preparations results in a significant decrease in tumor invasiveness.
Key words: phage T4; melanoma; antimetastatic activity; b3-integrins
Acta virologica 48: 241 – 248, 2004
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DEVELOPMENT OF A N GENE-BASED PCR-ELISA FOR DETECTION OF PESTE-DES-PETITS-RUMINANTS VIRUS IN CLINICAL SAMPLES
P. Saravanan1*, R.P. Singh1, V. Balamurugan1, P. Dhar2, B.P. Sreenivasa3, D. Muthuchelvan4, A. Sen1, A.G. Aleyas1, R.K. Singh1, S.K Bandyopadhyay2
1 Division of Virology, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteswar-Kumaon, Nainital, Uttaranchal, 263 138, India
2 Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, India
3 Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bangalore Campus, Hebbal, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
4 Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin, Kerala, India
Received May 7, 2004; accepted November 3, 2004
Summary. – A highly sensitive N gene-based PCR-ELISA for the detection of Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus (PPRV) was developed. The RT-PCR yielded a digoxigenin (DIG)-labeled product of 336 bp comprising a sequence from PPRV N gene, which was then detected by ELISA. The assay could detect the viral RNA in PPRV-infected tissue culture fluids with a titer as low as 0.1 TCID50/ml. The assay is 10,000 times more sensitive than a classical RT-PCR combined with agarose gel electrophoresis. The assay could detect the virus in the clinical samples, which were negative by conventional sandwich ELISA (S-ELISA). The percentage positivity of the assay in detecting the virus in clinical samples was 66.2% compared to 48.6% for S-ELISA. The assay was more sensitive than S-ELISA also in detecting the virus in early as well as late phases of the disease. In addition, the assay could also be used for differential diagnosis of PPRV and Rinderpest virus (RPV).
Key words: clinical samples; diagnosis, differential diagnosis; PCR-ELISA; peste-des-petits-ruminants; Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus; rinderpest; Rinderpest virus; RT-PCR; sandwich ELISA
Acta virologica 48: 249 – 255, 2004
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PROPERTIES OF A VIRUS ISOLATED FROM VERNONIA AMYGDALINA DEL. IN LAGOS, NIGERIA
M.A. TAIWO1*, J. DIJKSTRA2
1 Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria
2 Department of Virology, Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Received May 26, 2004; accepted November 3, 2004
Summary. – A previously uncharacterized virus tentatively named Vernonia green vein-banding virus (VGVBV) was isolated from Vernonia amygdalina Del. (“bitterleaf”) from Lagos, Nigeria. The virus was mechanically transmissible but had a narrow host range restricted to Nicotiana benthamiana, Chenopodium quinoa and C. amaranticolor. It was also transmissible in a non-persistent manner by Myzus persicae. The virus was purified from N. benthamiana and about 750 nm long flexuous rod-shaped particles were observed in purified preparations as well as in leaf–dips of Vernonia sp. Inclusion bodies in the form of pinwheels and scrolls were observed in ultrathin sections of Vernonia leaves by electron microscopy. Mr of the viral coat protein was estimated to be about 34 K. In indirect ELISA, all 20 samples from naturally infected Vernonia sp. reacted positively with a potyvirus-specific monoclonal antibody (MAb) as well as with an antiserum raised against VGVBV. Apart from the homologous antigen, the VGVBV antiserum reacted only with Plum poxvirus (PPV). The VGVBV reacted strongly with the antisera to Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV), Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) and Amaranthus leaf mottle virus (AmLMV) but weakly with antisera to PPV and Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CABMV) (all members of the family Potyviridae, the genus Potyvirus) in at least one of the assays used (indirect ELISA, dot-blot immunoassay and Western blot analysis). The results of our host range, cytopathological and serological studies and the available literature indicate that a hitherto difficult to transmit VGVBV has only been reported from Nigeria. We consider VGVBV a candidate for a new potyvirus. This virus should be further investigated to collect sufficient data for a qualified proposal of VGVBV as a new potyvirus.
Key words: Vernonia amygdalina Del.; Vernonia green vein-banding virus; potyvirus
Acta virologica 48: 257 – 262, 2004
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HIGH TH1-TYPE CYTOKINE SERUM LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH INFECTIOUS MONONUCLEOSIS
M.M. CORSI1*, M. RUSCICA1, D. PASSONI1, M.G. SCARMOZZINO2, E. GULLETTA2
1 Laboratory of Clinical Pathology, Institute of General Pathology, Medical Faculty, University of Milan, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 31, I-20133 Milan, Italy
2 Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine “G. Salvatore”, Chair of Clinical Pathology, Medical Faculty, University “Magna Graecia”, Catanzaro, Italy
Received April 14, 2004; accepted November 4, 2004
Summary. – Most adults are asymptomatically infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Primary EBV infection is commonly associated with acute infectious mononucleosis (IM). T cell immune activation plays an important role in EBV-associated diseases. IM shows a mainly Th1-type profile, so Th1-type cytokines such as interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-g (IFN-g), and lymphotoxin (LT) are moderately enhanced. We measured IL-2 and IFN-g in serum during acute phase of the disease and during convalescence. Sera were collected from 23 IM patients, 13 patients with similar clinical manifestations but without IM, and 10 healthy donors. The levels of IL-2, IFN-g and IL-12 were significantly higher in patients with acute IM than in healthy individuals. IL-2, IFN-g and IL-12 decreased during convalescence. These three cytokines may be useful as sensitive markers of IM during severe illness and its later phases.
Key words: infectious mononucleosis; interferon-g; interleukin-2; interleukin-12
Acta virologica 48: 263 – 266, 2004
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CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF COAT PROTEIN GENE OF AN INDIAN ODONTOGLOSUM RINGSPOT VIRUS ISOLATE
A.R. SHERPA, V. HALLAN, A.A. ZAIDI
Plant Virus Laboratory, Floriculture Division, Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR), Post Box No. 6, Palampur, 176061, Himachal Pradesh, India
Received April 14, 2004; accepted October 25, 2004
Key words: coat protein gene; nucleotide sequence; amino acid sequence; Odontoglossum ringspot virus; Indian isolate; Cymbidium mosaic virus; detection; ELISA, RT-PCR
Acta virologica 48: 267 – 269, 2004
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