Studentship: MDV-specific T cell responses

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Marek’s disease (MD) is a lymphoproliferative disease of chickens caused by Marek’s disease virus (MDV) or Gallid herpesvirus 2. The life cycle of MDV in chickens constitutes inhalation of cell-free MDV by chickens, followed by transfer of the virus from lungs to lymphoid tissues. Within lymphoid tissues, the virus proceeds to a cytolytic phase in B cells, which is then followed by latent and neoplastic phases in T cells resulting in clinical manifestations. Productive infection, which leads to the release of infectious virus particles, occurs in feather follicles.

Immunity against MD is dependent on interactions between innate and acquired immune mechanisms. Among the acquired mechanisms, T cells play an important role in immunity. Cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes (CTL) are induced in the course of MDV infection and CTL responses are targeted towards infected host cells that express MDV antigens, such as meq and pp38. CTL responses may be an important contributing factor in genetic resistance to MD, perhaps by preventing reactivation of MDV from the latent phase in resistant and not in susceptible chickens. The proposed research project investigates host-pathogen interactions, particularly T cell-mediated immune response to MDV in chickens. In this project, we aim to identify CD8+ T cell epitopes within MDV-encoded proteins such as meq, and pp38 and analyse the functional abilities of these MDV specific CD8+ T cells in resistant and susceptible chicken lines. In brief, the results from this proposal will provide tools to identify-MDV specific CD8+ T cells in chicken and establish whether there is any association between genetic resistance to the infection and the quantity/ quality of MDV specific CD8+ T cell responses.

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