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Foot and mouth disease virus replication in bovine epithelia and the relationship to cellular type/differentiation and cytopathology

Reference	BBS/E/I/00001277
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Bryan Charleston
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	The Pirbright Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	95,700
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	10/01/2007
End date	31/12/2010
Duration	48 months

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes a highly contagious disease that can affect cattle, sheep and pigs, and in some ruminants it can cause persistent infections resulting in carrier animals. Foot-and-mouth (FMD) remains the single most important constraint to trade in live animals and animal products. During the acute phase, FMDV kills epithelial cells rapidly in the stratified, cornified squamous epithelia, resulting in vesicular lesions on feet and mouth. In contrast, there are no evident lesions or signs of cytopathic effect on pharyngeal region (dorsal soft palate and nasopharynx) covered by stratified, non-cornified squamous epithelia even when this region contains relatively high levels of viral RNA. In addition, FMDV RNA was predominantly localised in the basal cells of both mouth and foot epithelium during disease with later persistence also in the basal cell layer in the epithelia of dorsal soft palate. The mechanism that underlies these observations has not been identified yet. In vitro model of FMDV persistent infection implies that cell variation could affect whether cells are killed or survive. Non-cornified and cornifed stratified squamous epithelia have different histological features and a distinct expression of differentiation markers. It is possible that the whether or not FMDV lytically replicates in vivo is dependent on cell-type and infection of non-cornified epithelial cells involves a slower rate of viral replication that causes no cytopathology. The restriction of FMDV to the basal cell layer of epithelia suggests a possible link between FMDV replication in vivo and the cell status. This proposal seeks to define precisely the association between cell type, cell status, virus replication and outcome of infection. This may reveal why lesions/cytopathology do not occur at pharyngeal sites and provide an explanation for the establishment and maintenance of FMDV persistence.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Health, 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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