Investigation on the Role of the Viral Semaphorin encoded by the A3 Gene of Alcelaphine Herpesvirus 1 in the Induction of Malignant Catarrhal Fever

Alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1) is a gammaherpesvirus carried by wildebeest asymptomatically. AlHV-1 is however responsible for the development of malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) when cross-species transmitted to a variety of ruminant susceptible species. Wildebeest-derived (WD)-MCF is a fatal lymphoproliferative and degenerative disease of ruminants. Experimentally, WD-MCF can be reproduced in rabbits. A3 ORF encodes a putative semaphorin homolog protein, named AlHV-sema. Semaphorins are secreted and membrane-associated proteins characterized by a conserved ‘Sema’ domain. Initially identified as guidance factors assisting axons pathfinding during neural development, semaphorins have been shown over the last decade to have significant functions in various processes of immunoregulation. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that AlHV-sema and mammals Sema7A have a common ancestor and that AlHV-Sema has evolved independently of other viral semaphorins. Further bioinformatics analyses demonstrated that AlHV-Sema and cellular Sema7A share a highly similar tridimensional structure. In order to investigate the role of AlHV-Sema in WD-MCF induction, we used the AlHV-1 BAC clone and produced a strain deleted for A3 and a revertant strain. The strain deleted for A3 replicated comparably to the wild-type parental strain in vitro. In vivo, rabbits infected with the strain deleted for A3 developed WD-MCF with a small but significant delay compared to those infected with the parental and revertant strains. Deletion of A3 did not affect the increase of viral genomic charge over time in peripheral blood and in lymph nodes at time of death and the major histopathological lesions were present in all groups. Though infection with wild-type and revertant strains resulted in the inversion of CD8 over CD4 ratio and increased IFN- production in lymphoid tissues at time of death, both parameters were significantly reduced after infection with the A3 deleted strain. Together, these results suggest that AlHV-Sema play a role in the host response to AlHV-1 infection.