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Research article2011Peer reviewed

Expression of interferon gamma in the brain of cats with natural Borna disease virus infection

Wensman, Jonas Johansson; Blomström, Anne-Lie; Hagberg Gustavsson, Malin; Hultin Jäderlund, Karin; Ström Holst, Bodil; Belák, Sándor; Berg, Anna-Lena; Berg, Mikael

Abstract

Borna disease virus (BDV) is a neurotropic, negative-stranded RNA virus, which causes a non-suppurative meningoencephalomyelitis in a wide range of animals. In cats, BDV infection leads to staggering disease. In spite of a vigorous immune response the virus persists in the central nervous system (CNS) in both experimentally and naturally infected animals. Since the CNS is vulnerable to cytotoxic effects mediated via NK-cells and cytotoxic T-cells, other non-cytolytic mechanisms such as the interferon (IFN) system is favourable for viral clearance. In this study, IFN-gamma expression in the brain of cats with clinical signs of staggering disease (N = 12) was compared to the expression in cats with no signs of this disease (N = 7) by quantitative RT-PCR. The IFN-gamma expression was normalised against the expression of three reference genes (HPRT, RPS7, YWHAZ). Cats with staggering disease had significantly higher expression of IFN-gamma compared to the control cats (p-value <= 0.001). There was no significant difference of the IFN-gamma expression in BDV-positive (N = 7) and negative (N = 5) cats having clinical signs of staggering disease. However, as BDV-RNA still could be detected, despite an intense IFN-gamma expression, BDV needs to have mechanisms to evade this antiviral immune response of the host, to be able to persist. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Type II interferon; Bornavirus; Staggering disease; Cat; Viral persistence

Published in

Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology
2011, Volume: 141, number: 1-2, pages: 162-167 Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV