2004/05/27 by C. P. Carrasco, Carlos P. Carrasco, Rachael C. Rigden +19 · 17 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Medicine · #Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology #Animal Virus Infections Studies #Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology
paper · doi:10.1099/vir.0.19716-0
Functional disruption of dendritic cells (DCs) is an important strategy for viral pathogens to evade host defences. Monocytotropic viruses such as classical swine fever virus (CSFV) could employ such a mechanism, since the virus can suppress immune responses and induce apoptosis without infecting lymphocytes. Here, CSFV was shown to infect and efficiently replicate in monocyte- and in bone marrow-derived DCs. Interestingly, the infected DCs displayed neither modulated MHC nor CD80/86 expression. Stimulation of DCs with IFN-alpha/TNF-alpha or polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (pIC) induced phenotypic maturation with increased MHC and CD80/86 expression, both with mock-treated and infected DCs. In addition, the T cell stimulatory capacity of CSFV-infected DCs was maintained both in a polyclonal T cell stimulation and in specific antigen-presentation assays, requiring antigen uptake and processing. Interestingly, similar to macrophages, CSFV did not induce IFN-alpha responses in these DCs and even suppressed pIC-induced IFN-alpha induction. Other cytokines including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, IL-12 and TNF-alpha were not modulated. Taken together, these results demonstrated that CSFV can replicate in DCs and control IFN type I responses, without interfering with the immune reactivity. These results are interesting considering that DC infection with RNA viruses usually results in DC activation.