title: Live attenuated African swine fever viruses as ideal tools to dissect the mechanisms involved in viral pathogenesis and immune protection.
abstract: African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causal agent of African swine fever, a hemorrhagic and often lethal porcine disease causing enormous economical losses in affected countries. Endemic for decades in most of the sub-Saharan countries and Sardinia, the risk of ASFV-endemicity in Europe has increased since its last introduction into Europe in 2007. Live attenuated viruses have been demonstrated to induce very efficient protective immune responses, albeit most of the time protection was circumscribed to homologous ASFV challenges. However, their use in the field is still far from a reality, mainly due to safety concerns. In this study we compared the course of the in vivo infection caused by two homologous ASFV strains: the virulent E75 and the cell cultured adapted strain E75CV1, obtained from adapting E75 to grow in the CV1 cell-line. Interestingly, the kinetics of both viruses not only differed on the clinical signs that they caused and in the virus loads found, but also in the immunological pathways activated throughout the infections. Furthermore, E75CV1 confirmed its protective potential against the homologous E75 virus challenge and allowed the demonstration of poor cross-protection against BA71, thus defining it as heterologous. The in vitro specificity of the CD8(+) T-cells present at the time of lethal challenge showed a clear activation against the homologous virus (E75) but not against BA71. These findings will be of utility for a better understanding of ASFV pathogenesis and for the rational designing of safe and efficient vaccines against this virus.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca En Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. a.lacasta@cgiar.org.|International Livestock Research Intitute (ILRI), 00100, Nairobi, Kenya. a.lacasta@cgiar.org.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lacasta
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca En Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. paula.lopez@irta.cat.
authors.forename: Paula L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Monteagudo
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible, Campus Alameda del Obispo, 14080 CSIC, Córdoba, Spain. gm2jimaa@uco.es.
authors.forename: Ángeles
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Marín
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca En Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. francesc.accensi@uab.cat.|Departament de Sanitat i Anatomia Animals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. francesc.accensi@uab.cat.
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Accensi
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca En Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. mballester@jouy.inra.fr.|INRA, UMR, 1313, Génétique Animale et Biologie Intégrative, 78352, Jouy-en-Josas, France. mballester@jouy.inra.fr.
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ballester
authors.affiliation: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003, Barcelona, Spain. jordi.argilaguet@upf.edu.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Argilaguet
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca En Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. ivan.galindo@worldpathol.com.|WorldPathol Ltd. Co., 50005, Saragossa, Spain. ivan.galindo@worldpathol.com.
authors.forename: Iván
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Galindo-Cardiel
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca En Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. joaquim.segales@irta.cat.|Departament de Sanitat i Anatomia Animals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. joaquim.segales@irta.cat.
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Segalés
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), 28049, Madrid, Spain. mlsalas@cbm.csic.es.
authors.forename: María L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Salas
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biotecnologıa, INIA, 28040, Madrid, Spain. juncal@inia.es.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible, Campus Alameda del Obispo, 14080 CSIC, Córdoba, Spain. ge1moloa@uco.es.|Grupo de Genómica y Mejora Animal, Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus de Rabanales, Ed. C-5, 14071, Córdoba, Spain. ge1moloa@uco.es.
authors.forename: Ángela
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible, Campus Alameda del Obispo, 14080 CSIC, Córdoba, Spain. ge1gapaj@uco.es.
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Garrido
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca En Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain. fernando.rodriguez@irta.cat.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000357:African Swine Fever / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D000358:African Swine Fever Virus / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D013552:Swine; D014613:Vaccines, Attenuated / Q000276:immunology; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D014613:Vaccines, Attenuated; D014765:Viral Vaccines