Award details

Immunology of acute virus infection of pigs

Reference	BBS/E/I/00001042
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Haru - Hisa Takamatsu
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	The Pirbright Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	925,694
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2003
End date	30/06/2009
Duration	75 months

Abstract

There is a need to define the cellular components of the porcine immune system and understand how they function in response to virus infection. It is well established that T-cell mediated adaptive immune responses play a critical role in immunity to viral infections and there is a growing realisation that innate immune responses are also important for the elimination of pathogens. We argue that an understanding of the nature and specificity of these responses in the pig will underpin the development of better vaccines against porcine viruses and use ASFV and FMDV as model systems. Areas of particular interest are the identification of cytotoxic T-cells reactive with these viruses, and analysis of the peptides they recognise. This information will be used to design porcine MHC class 1 tetramers able to follow the dynamics of virus specific cytotoxic T-cells during infection and following vaccination. Porcine lymphocyte populations contain relatively large numbers of cells that are rare or absent in human and mouse. We have, for example, discovered high levels of MHC class 2 positive gamma/delta T-cells in the circulation of pigs, and are keen to study their role in antigen processing and presentation. We have also shown that porcine lymphocyte populations contain relatively large numbers of natural killer (NK)-like cells. NK cells are heterogeneous and express many different types of NK cell receptor, a common theme, however, is the ability to recognise and kill cells expressing low levels of MHC class 1 proteins as a result of infection. We will generate antibodies allowing us identify sub sets of porcine NK cells and study their ability to kill cells infected with porcine viruses.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	Animal Health, Immunology, Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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