Dichotomy between T Cell and B Cell Tolerance to Neonatal Retroviral Infection Permits T Cell Therapy.

Elucidation of the immune requirements for control or elimination of retroviral infection remains an important aim. We studied the induction of adaptive immunity to neonatal infection with a murine retrovirus, under conditions leading to immunological tolerance. We found that the absence of either maternal or offspring adaptive immunity permitted efficient vertical transmission of the retrovirus.

Exposure to environmental stressors result in increased viral load and further reduction of production parameters in pigs experimentally infected with PCV2b.

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) has been identified as the essential, but not sole, underlying infectious component for PCV-associated diseases (PCVAD). Several co-factors have been suggested to convert an infection with PCV2 into the clinical signs of PCVAD, including co-infection with a secondary pathogen and the genetic background of the pig. In the present study, we investigated the role of environmental stressors in the form of changes in environmental temperature and increased stocking-density on viral load in serum and tissue, average daily weight gain (ADG) and food conversion rate (FCR) of pigs experimentally infected with a defined PCV2b strain over an eight week period.

Microarray analysis reveals global modulation of endogenous retroelement transcription by microbes.

Background: A substantial proportion of both the mouse and human genomes comprise of endogenous retroelements (REs), which include endogenous retroviruses. Over evolutionary time, REs accumulate inactivating mutations or deletions and thus lose the ability to replicate. Additionally, REs can be transcriptionally repressed by dedicated mechanisms of the host.

Global gene expression profiling of myeloid immune cell subsets in response to in vitro challenge with porcine circovirus 2b.

Compelling evidence suggests that the early interaction between porcine circovirus 2 (PCV-2) and the innate immune system is the key event in the pathogenesis of Post-Weaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome (PMWS). Furthermore, PCV2 has been detected in bone-marrow samples, potentially enabling an easy spread and reservoir for the virus. To assess the gene-expression differences induced by an in-vitro PCV2b infection in different three different myeloid innate immune cell subsets generated from the same animal, we used the Agilent Porcine Gene Expression Microarray (V2).

Counterpoise between the microbiome, host immune activation and pathology.

The role of the mammalian intestinal microbiota in health and disease of the host has long been recognized and extensively studied. Largely, these studies have focused on the bacterial component of the microbiota. However, recent technological advances have shed new light on the microbiome at distinct anatomical locations and uncovered the role of additional microbial symbionts, including the virome and endogenous retroelements.