Clearance of a productive lentivirus infection in calves experimentally inoculated with caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus.
Lentiviruses have long been considered host-specific pathogens, but several recent observations demonstrated their capacity to conquer new hosts from different species, genera, and families. From these cross-species infections emerged new animal and human infectious diseases. The successful colonization and adaptation of a lentivirus to a nonnatural host depends on unspecific and specific host barriers. Some of those barriers exert a relative control of viral replication (i.e., cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response, viral inhibitory factors), but none of them was found able to totally clear the infection once the retrovirus is fully adapted in its host. In this study we examined the evolution of the host-lentivirus interactions occurring in an experimental animal model of cross-species infection in order to analyze the efficiency of those barriers in preventing the establishment of a persistent infection. Five newborn calves were inoculated with caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV), and the evolution of infection was studied for more than 12 months. All the animals seroconverted in the first 0.75 to 1 month following the inoculation and remained seropositive for the remaining time of the experiment. Viral infection was productive during 4 months with isolation of replication competent virus from the blood cells and organs of the early euthanized animals. After 4 months of infection, neither replication-competent virus nor virus genome could be detected in blood cells or in the classical target organs, even after an experimental immunosuppression. No evidence of in vitro restriction of CAEV replication was observed in cells from tissues explanted from organs of these calves. These data provide the demonstration of a natural clearance of lentivirus infection following experimental inoculation of a nonnatural host, enabling perspectives of development of new potential vaccine strategies to fight against lentivirus infections.
Morin
Thierry
T
UMR 754 INRA/ENVL/UCBL Rétrovirus et Pathologie Comparée, Equipe Virologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire & Maladies Emergentes, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, France.
Guiguen
François
F
Bouzar
Baya Amel
BA
Villet
Stéphanie
S
Greenland
Timothy
T
Grezel
Délphine
D
Gounel
Françoise
F
Gallay
Kathy
K
Garnier
Céline
C
Durand
Jitka
J
Alogninouwa
Théodore
T
Mselli-Lakhal
Laïla
L
Mornex
Jean-François
JF
Chebloune
Yahia
Y
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D016088:Arthritis-Encephalitis Virus, Caprine / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D006041:Goats; D016180:Lentivirus Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D013045:Species Specificity; D014779:Virus Replication
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D004279:DNA, Viral