title: Marek's disease virus may interfere with T cell immunity by TLR3 signals.
abstract: Marek's disease virus (MDV) is a highly oncogenic alpha-herpesvirus that causes T cell immune suppression and malignant lymphomas in chickens. Toll-like receptor (TLR) plays a dominant role in antiviral T cell immunity. However, it is unclear whether MDV induced T cell immunity is associated with TLR-mediated immunity. In this study, the expression of 28 host genes that are involved in TLR-mediated immunity and MHC-medicated T cell immunity was evaluated in chicken thymus at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days post-infection (dpi). Our results demonstrated that 24 host immune-related genes were upregulated during MDV infection at 7 dpi; however, the expression of most of these genes decreased at 21 and 28 dpi. Notably, a positive correlation was found between the down-regulation of CD4, CD8 and TLR3 signals but not the MyD88-dependent TLR pathway. The present study expanded our knowledge of host immune responses against MDV infection and our results might provide a clue that MDV may interfere with T cell immune response through TLR3 signals.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Jiangsu Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xuming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Wencai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Aijian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Genghua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Hongxia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Jianqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ye
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000276:immunology; D005796:Genes / Q000235:genetics; D008381:Herpesvirus 2, Gallid / Q000276:immunology*; D008380:Marek Disease / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology; D013995:Time; D051196:Toll-Like Receptor 3 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors
chemical_list: D051196:Toll-Like Receptor 3; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors