WildebeestsWIKIMEDIA, CHAD ROSENTHALA single gene, which enables herpesvirus genomes to persist in infected cells, appears to be critical for the development of an often-fatal disease in susceptible animals, according to new research published today (April 29) in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cattle can contract malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), an often-fatal disease in which activated immune cells accumulate and cause tissue damage, from wildebeests asymptomatically infected with the alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1). Now, researchers demonstrated that MCF requires the persistence of the herpesvirus genome in infected cows. Removing the gene responsible for AlHV-1 latency helps protect the animals against the disease, pointing to a new vaccine strategy to protect livestock.
The new research offers “compelling evidence” that a herpesvirus gene enables the viral genome to be maintained and is “important to the accumulation of infected T cells and generation of disease,” said David Haig, an immunologist at the University of Nottingham who was not involved in the research.
AlHV-1 is one of several types of herpesviruses that ...
