title: Prophylactic potential of resiquimod against very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) challenge in the chicken.
abstract: The study evaluated the prophylactic potential of resiquimod (R-848), a synthetic TLR7 agonist, against very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) infection in chicken. Specific pathogen free White Leghorn chicks of three week age were treated with R-848 (50μg/bird, intramuscular) or PBS (n=26/group). Twenty four hour later, half of the birds from each group were challenged with 10(5) ELD50 of vvIBDV and observed for 10days. To understand the effect of R-848, immune response genes such as interferon (IFN)-β, IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-4, iNOS and TLR7 were analyzed at 24 and 48h post-challenge in PBMCs ex vivo by real-time PCR (n=6/group). On day 4 post-challenge, representative birds (n=3/group) were sacrificed to study the bursal damage and IBDV antigen clearance. Immunosuppression was assessed by antibody response against live Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccine, which was administered on day 10 post-challenge. R-848 pre-treatment significantly upregulated the transcripts of each immune response gene studied (P<0.05). There was 50% mortality on vvIBDV challenge in control birds, while it was only 20% with R-848 group. R-848 pre-treatment reduced the bursal damage as indicated by lower bursal lesion score in histopathology, reduced IBDV antigen signal in immunohistochemistry and improved antigen clearance in agar gel immunodiffusion test. Further, it protected significantly against vvIBDV induced immunosuppression as indicated by HI antibody titre. It is concluded that pre-treatment of R-848 conferred partial protection from mortality and bursal damage while complete protection against immunosuppression in chicken when challenged with vvIBDV, which could be due to the upregulation of immune response genes.
authors.affiliation: Immunology Section, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: Arunsaravanakumar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Annamalai
authors.affiliation: Immunology Section, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India. Electronic address: dearsaromib@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Saravanan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramakrishnan
authors.affiliation: Immunology Section, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: Swati
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sachan
authors.affiliation: Immunology Section, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: B S Anand
authors.initials: BSA
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Immunology Section, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: Bal Krishan
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Immunology Section, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: Vimal
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Division of Pathology, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: Munuswamy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Palanivelu
authors.affiliation: Division of Pathology, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: Berin P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Varghese
authors.affiliation: Division of Animal Biochemistry, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Division of Parasitology, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: B C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Saravanan
authors.affiliation: Division of Animal Reproduction, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243 122, India.
authors.forename: Narayanan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Krishnaswamy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018175:Birnaviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D002645:Chickens; D016207:Cytokines / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007243:Infectious bursal disease virus / Q000276:immunology; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II / Q000235:genetics; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D051199:Toll-Like Receptor 7 / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D007093:Imidazoles; D051199:Toll-Like Receptor 7; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; C402365:resiquimod
keywords: Chicken; Immune response genes; Infectious bursal disease; Prophylaxis; Real time PCR; Resiquimod; Toll-like receptors