Generation of transgenic mice expressing equine herpesvirus-1 receptor and its application for antiviral strategies

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24380162
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied veterinary science
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: KIMURA TAKASHI 北海道大学, (連合)獣医学研究科, 教授 (90261338)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SASAKI Nobuya 北里大学, 獣医学部, 教授 (20302614) ; Ohnishi Naomi 北海道大学, 人獣共通感染症リサーチセンター, 助教 (50507217)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: ヘルペスウイルス / ウマ / レセプター / トランスジェニックマウス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Equine major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I act as receptor molecules that play an important role in EHV-1 entry into equine cells. In this study, transgenic (Tg) mice expressing equine MHC class I were generated to explore whether the ubiquitous expression of equine MHC class I rendered mice more susceptible to EHV-1 infection and then developed more severe disease conditions. Tg mice were inoculated intranasally with EHV-1, euthanized, and subjected to pathological analyses. Tg mice developed more severe bronchointerstitial pneumonia than wild-type (WT) littermate mice. The number of virus antigen-positive cells distributed within lung tissues was higher in Tg mice than that in WT mice. These results suggest that exogenous expression of equine MHC class I may increase susceptibility of lung tissues to EHV-1 infection in Tg mouse. Tg mice having equine MHC class I expression in T cells, which are one of the major target of EHV-1, are also generated.

Free Research Field

農学