The equine immune system is a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs that work collaboratively to defend against pathogens and maintain homeostasis. It consists of innate and adaptive components, each with distinct functions and mechanisms. The innate immune system provides the first line of defense through physical barriers, phagocytic cells, and the complement system. The adaptive immune system involves lymphocytes, such as B cells and T cells, which generate specific responses to antigens and provide immunological memory. Research in equine immunology explores the interactions between these components, the impact of genetic and environmental factors on immune function, and the development of vaccines and therapeutics. This page gathers peer-reviewed studies and scholarly articles focusing on the mechanisms, regulation, and clinical applications of the equine immune system in health and disease.
Martins TB, Kommers GD, Trost ME, Inkelmann MA, Fighera RA, Schild AL.Twenty-one cases of pythiosis in horses (n = 10), dogs (n = 9) and cattle (n = 2) were investigated. The aetiology in all cases was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Data related to the clinical course and outcome and localization of the lesions were obtained from pathology reports. The equine lesions consisted of fibrotic tissue with multiple, often coalescing, areas of immature granulation tissue encircling eosinophilic cores. Affected dogs had gastrointestinal and/or cutaneous lesions with either or both of a granulomatous/pyogranulomatous or necrotizing eosinophilic inflammatory reaction....
Iyer U, Kadambi VJ.Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) consist of an antibody attached to a cytotoxic drug by means of a linker. ADCs provide a way to couple the specificity of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) to the cytotoxicity of a small-molecule drug and, therefore, are promising new therapies for cancer. ADCs are prodrugs that are inactive in circulation but exert their cytotoxicity upon binding to the target cancer cell. Earlier unsuccessful attempts to generate ADCs with therapeutic value have emphasized the important role each component plays in determining the efficacy and safety of the final ADC. Scientific adv...
Muehlmann LA, Michelotto PV, Nunes EA, Grando FC, da Silva FT, Nishiyama A.Phagocytosis exerted by alveolar macrophages and neutrophils is crucial in the clearance of exogenous particles deposited in the airways. Therefore, substances that activate these phagocytes in the airways can exert important effects on the particle clearance rate. PAF, particularly, was proved to be a potent activator of several immune cells and was shown to be present in the equine lower airways in specific conditions, such as after exercise. The present study aimed to investigate if PAF is able to increase the phagocytic capacity and the production of superoxide anion in equine alveolar mac...
Ibrahim S, Steinbach F.Earlier studies investigating the cross-reactivity of antibodies submitted to the HLDA8 had used flow cytometry as a method of choice to screen mAbs for reactivity with equine leukocytes, including two-color flow-cytometry to characterize the lymphocyte population they detect. In addition, immuno-histochemistry (IHC) was used to detect distribution of positive cells in lymphoid tissue sections. In this study we performed immunoprecipitation (IP) to complement the previous results and add valuable information regarding the molecules detected by the cross-reacting antibodies. Surface molecules f...
Kalemkerian PB, Metz GE, Peral-García P, Lopez-Gappa J, Echeverría MG, Giovambattista G, Díaz S.We investigated the association of equine arteritis virus (EAV) infection and three short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms located within or in close proximity to equine lymphocyte antigen (ELA) region. We used a case-control design as a first approach before proceeding to select candidate genes. One hundred and sixty-five Silla Argentino horses were taken in 2002 from positive serological detections of EAV in Argentina, to determine whether STR genotypes were correlated to genetic susceptibility to EVA. Allele frequency distribution did not show significant differences between both groups (P...
Borst LB, Patterson SK, Lanka S, Barger AM, Fredrickson RL, Maddox CW.To evaluate a commercially available modified-live Streptococcus equi subsp equi vaccine for safety and persistence in vaccinated ponies and to detect recombination or reversion events in the vaccine strain. Methods: 5 ponies that were 1.5 to 8 years old (group 1) and 4 ponies that were 6 months old (group 2). Methods: Ponies were vaccinated, with a subsequent booster vaccination 2 to 3 weeks later, and monitored for 50 days. At booster vaccination, an equal amount of a tetracycline-resistant wild-type strain of S equiwas administered. Recovery of all strains was performed by use of bacteriolo...
Quintana AM, Hussey SB, Burr EC, Pecoraro HL, Annis KM, Rao S, Landolt GA.To evaluate whether an equine-derived canine H3N8 influenza A virus was capable of infecting and transmitting disease to ponies. Methods: 20 influenza virus-seronegative 12- to 24-month-old ponies. Methods: 5 ponies were inoculated via aerosol exposure with 10(7) TCID(50) of A/Canine/Wyoming/86033/07 virus (Ca/WY)/pony. A second group of 5 ponies (positive control group) was inoculated via aerosol exposure with a contemporary A/Eq/Colorado/10/07 virus (Eq/CO), and 4 sham-inoculated ponies served as a negative control group. To evaluate the potential for virus transmission, ponies (3/inoculatio...
Faleiros RR, Leise BS, Watts M, Johnson PJ, Black SJ, Belknap JK.Chemokines play a vital role in leukocyte activation and emigration that reportedly plays a central role in laminar injury in equine laminitis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the pattern of laminar chemokine expression in horses in the classical carbohydrate overload (CHO)-model of laminitis. Laminar samples were obtained 24h following water administration in the control group (CON, n=8), and at the onset of fever (≥ 102°F, 12-22 h post CHO, DEV group, n=8) and at the onset of lameness (20-48 h post CHO, LAM group, n=8) in induced horses. Real time quantitative PCR was performed ...
Kim SK, Kim S, Dai G, Zhang Y, Ahn BC, O'Callaghan DJ.The equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) negative regulatory IR2 protein (IR2P), an early 1,165-amino acid (aa) truncated form of the 1487-aa immediate-early protein (IEP), lacks the trans-activation domain essential for IEP activation functions but retains domains for binding DNA, TFIIB, and TBP and the nuclear localization signal. IR2P mutants of the N-terminal region which lack either DNA-binding activity or TFIIB-binding activity were unable to down-regulate EHV-1 promoters. In EHV-1-infected cells expressing full-length IR2P, transcription and protein expression of viral regulatory IE, early EICP...
Burbelo PD, Bren KE, Ching KH, Coleman A, Yang X, Kariu T, Iadarola MJ, Pal U.Infection with Borrelia burgdorferi is common in horses and ponies from the New England and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. Here, we evaluated luciferase immunoprecipitation systems (LIPS) for profiling antibody responses against three different antigenic targets for the diagnosis of equine B. burgdorferi infection. LIPS testing of horse serum samples suspected of Lyme infection revealed that approximately 75% of the horse samples (114/159) were seropositive against the synthetic VOVO antigen, comprising repeated immunodominant C6 epitopes as well as OspC immunodominant epitopes. A ...
Klier J, May A, Fuchs S, Schillinger U, Plank C, Winter G, Gehlen H, Coester C.Recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) in horses has become a common problem in stabled horses in industrialized countries and deserves new therapeutic strategies. CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG-ODNs) were developed as effective immunostimulating agents to induce a Th2/Th1 shift. These agents showed a beneficial therapeutic effect in allergic diseases with predominant Th2 immunoresponse. CpG-ODN delivery by gelatin nanoparticles (GNPs) resulted in enhanced cellular uptake in murine and human in vitro studies and was a starting point for the present trial. The aim of this study was to identify an o...
Lin YZ, Cao XZ, Li L, Li L, Jiang CG, Wang XF, Ma J, Zhou JH.The attenuated equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) vaccine was the first attenuated lentivirus vaccine to be used in a large-scale application and has been used to successfully control the spread of equine infectious anemia (EIA) in China. To better understand the potential role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of EIAV infection and resulting immune response, we used branched DNA technology to compare the mRNA expression levels of 12 cytokines and chemokines, including IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-10, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IP-10, IL-8, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, MCP-1, and MCP-2, in equine monocyte-derived mac...
Kumar S, Malik P, Verma SK, Pal V, Gautam V, Mukhopadhyay C, Rai GP.Glanders, caused by the Gram-negative, nonmotile bacterium Burkholderia mallei, is a contagious and highly fatal disease of equines. During the last decade, the number of glanders outbreaks has increased steadily. The disease also has high zoonotic significance and B. mallei is listed biological warfare agent. The complement fixation test (CFT) is a routinely used and internationally recognized test to screen equine sera for the glanders. However, discrepant results have been observed using the CFT. The low sensitivity and specificity of the CFT and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) ha...
Alcott CJ, Sponseller BA, Wong DM, Davis JL, Soliman AM, Wang C, Hsu W.Ketamine has immunomodulating effects both in vitro and in vivo during experimental endotoxemia in humans, rodents, and dogs. Objective: Subanesthetic doses of ketamine will attenuate the clinical and immunologic responses to experimental endotoxemia in horses. Methods: Nineteen healthy mares of various breeds. Methods: Experimental study. Horses were randomized into 2 groups: ketamine-treated horses (KET; n = 9) and saline-treated horses (SAL; n = 10). Both groups received 30 ng/kg of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, Escherichia coli, O55:B5) 1 hour after the start of a continuous rate infusion (CRI)...
Pauvolid-Corrêa A, Morales MA, Levis S, Figueiredo LT, Couto-Lima D, Campos Z, Nogueira MF, da Silva EE, Nogueira RM, Schatzmayr HG.Despite evidence of West Nile virus (WNV) activity in Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina, this virus has not been reported in most South American countries. In February 2009, we commenced an investigation for WNV in mosquitoes, horses and caimans from the Pantanal, Central-West Brazil. The sera of 168 horses and 30 caimans were initially tested using a flaviviruses-specific epitope-blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (blocking ELISA) for the detection of flavivirus-reactive antibodies. The seropositive samples were further tested using a plaque-reduction neutralisation test (PRNT90) for ...
Kirkland PD, Delbridge G.An important consideration in the selection of a vaccine during the Australian equine influenza (EI) outbreak in 2007 was the ability to differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals (DIVA). A blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (bELISA) targeted for the nucleoprotein of influenza A viruses was developed to differentiate between naturally infected horses and horses vaccinated with the ProteqFlu® vaccine, which only induces a response to viral haemagglutinin. This bELISA assay met the DIVA requirements and was used extensively during the EI control and eradication programs and '...
Sergeant ES, Cowled BD, Bingham P.This observational study was undertaken in order to evaluate the diagnostic specificity of the blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (bELISA) for serum antibodies to influenza A virus nucleoprotein during the equine influenza (EI) outbreak response in New South Wales, Australia, in 2007. Using data collected during the outbreak response, bELISA testing data were collated for assumed uninfected horses from areas where EI infection was never recorded. Diagnostic specificity of the bELISA used during the EI response was high, but varied significantly between some regions, although the reason...
Berg LC, Thomsen PD, Andersen PH, Jensen HE, Jacobsen S.mRNA expression of the acute phase protein serum amyloid A (SAA) in histologically normal tissues derived from horses (n=13) and cattle (n=4) was investigated by quantitative reverse-transcriptase real-time polymerase-chain reaction. As expected, high constitutive SAA mRNA expression was demonstrated in hepatic tissue in both species. In horses, moderate (>1% of the hepatic expression) SAA mRNA expression was detected in the lung, mammary gland, pancreas, synovial membrane, thymus, thyroid gland and uterus. Other equine tissues and organs sampled included adipose tissue, adrenal gland, aort...
Ranera B, Lyahyai J, Romero A, Vázquez FJ, Remacha AR, Bernal ML, Zaragoza P, Rodellar C, Martín-Burriel I.Bone marrow and adipose tissue are the two main sources of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC). The aim of this work was to analyse the immunophenotype of 7 surface markers and the expression of a panel of 13 genes coding for cell surface markers in equine bone marrow and adipose tissue-derived MSCs obtained from 9 horses at third passage. The tri-lineage differentiation was confirmed by specific staining. Equine MSCs from both sources were positive for the MSC markers CD29 and CD90, while were negative for CD44, CD73, CD105, CD45 and CD34. The gene expression of these molecules was also evaluated by ...
Pallister J, Middleton D, Wang LF, Klein R, Haining J, Robinson R, Yamada M, White J, Payne J, Feng YR, Chan YP, Broder CC.The henipaviruses, Hendra virus (HeV) and Nipah virus (NiV), are two deadly zoonotic viruses for which no vaccines or therapeutics have yet been approved for human or livestock use. In 14 outbreaks since 1994 HeV has been responsible for multiple fatalities in horses and humans, with all known human infections resulting from close contact with infected horses. A vaccine that prevents virus shedding in infected horses could interrupt the chain of transmission to humans and therefore prevent HeV disease in both. Here we characterise HeV infection in a ferret model and show that it closely mirror...
Gautam A, Dubey JP, Saville WJ, Howe DK.Sarcocystis neurona is a two-host coccidian parasite whose complex life cycle progresses through multiple developmental stages differing at morphological and molecular levels. The S. neurona merozoite surface is covered by multiple, related glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked proteins, which are orthologous to the surface antigen (SAG)/SAG1-related sequence (SRS) gene family of Toxoplasma gondii. Expression of the SAG/SRS proteins in T. gondii and another related parasite Neospora caninum is life-cycle stage specific and seems necessary for parasite transmission and persistence of infection. I...
Santos CE, Marques LC, Zanette RA, Jesus FP, Santurio JM.A cutaneous Pythium insidiosum reinfection was diagnosed in an equine in Brazil. Lesions with focal presentation appeared 2 years apart. The first infection and even immunotherapy were not likely to develop enough immune response to prevent reinfection. The use of adjuvants should be considered in the immunotherapy of pythiosis.
Mérant C, Sheoran A, Timoney JF.Streptococcus equi (Se), the cause of equine strangles, is highly resistant to phagocytosis by neutrophils and is usually classified as an extracellular pathogen. Large numbers of the organism in tonsillar tissues during the acute phase of the disease are completely eliminated during convalescence by mechanisms not yet understood. In this study we demonstrate in an opsono-bactericidal assay and by cytometry and confocal microscopy that Se is interiorized and killed by equine blood monocytes. This finding supports the hypotheses that adaptive immune clearance is mediated by tonsillar macrophage...
Pusterla N, Mapes S, Gebhart C.The cell-mediated immune response to Lawsonia intracellularis, the agent of equine proliferative enteropathy (EPE), was investigated in vaccinated and naturally infected foals. Interferon (IFN)-γ gene expression was determined in peripheral blood mononuclear cells collected from vaccinated (n=6) and control foals (n=6) every 30 days for 180 days following first vaccine administration, and from clinically affected foals (n=16) within 7-10 days of diagnosing EPE. Seroconversion (immunoperoxidase monolayer assay titer ≥60) occurred in 5/6 vaccinated foals between 60 and 90 days following the f...
Boulanger D, Doucoure S, Grout L, Ngom A, Rogerie F, Cornelie S, Sokhna C, Mouchet F, Riveau G, Simondon F, Remoue FJ.Although domestic animals may not be permissive for Plasmodium, they could nevertheless play a role in the epidemiology of malaria by attracting Anopheles away from humans. To investigate interactions between domestic animals and mosquitoes, we assayed immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies directed against the salivary proteins of Anopheles gambiae in domestic animals living in Senegalese villages where malaria is endemic. By Western blotting, sera from bovines (n=6), ovines (n=36), and caprines (n=36) did not react with Anopheles whole saliva. In contrast, equine sera recognized proteins in both ...
Sudarshan MK, Ashwath Narayana DH, Ravish HS.Rabies immunoglobulins are life-saving in patients with severe exposure to rabies. Despite the high degree of purification of equine rabies immunoglobulin (ERIG), the product inserts still recommend a skin sensitivity test before administration of this heterologous serum. A recent WHO recommendation states that there are no scientific grounds for performing a skin test before administering ERIG because testing does not predict reactions and it should be given irrespective of the result of the test. In this conflicting situation, we assessed the use of the skin sensitivity test in predicting ad...
Pusterla N, Kass PH, Mapes S, Johnson C, Barnett DC, Vaala W, Gutierrez C, McDaniel R, Whitehead B, Manning J.The prevalence and epidemiology of important viral (equine influenza virus [EIV], equine herpesvirus type 1 [EHV-1] and EHV-4) and bacterial (Streptococcus equi subspecies equi) respiratory pathogens shed by horses presented to equine veterinarians with upper respiratory tract signs and/or acute febrile neurological disease were studied. Veterinarians from throughout the USA were enrolled in a surveillance programme and were asked to collect blood and nasal secretions from equine cases with acute infectious upper respiratory tract disease and/or acute onset of neurological disease. A questionn...
Page AE, Loynachan AT, Bryant U, Stills HF, Adams AA, Gebhart CJ, Pusterla N, Horohov DW.Lawsonia intracellularis is the etiological agent of infectious intestinal hyperplasia for which several clinical diseases have been described including proliferative enteropathy (PE), intestinal adenomatosis, and ileitis. While initially recognized as the causative agent of PE in pigs, L. intracellularis is now viewed as an emerging cause of intestinal hyperplasia in a wide range of mammalian species, including horses. Equine proliferative enteropathy (EPE) has been reported worldwide though definitive diagnosis is difficult and the epidemiology of the disease remains poorly understood. Weanl...
Wang L, Pawlak EA, Johnson PJ, Belknap JK, Eades S, Stack S, Cousin H, Black SJ.The digital laminae is a two layer tissue that attaches the distal phalanx to the inner hoof wall, thus suspending the horse's axial skeleton in the hoof capsule. This tissue fails at the epidermal:dermal junction in laminitic horses, causing crippling disease. Basal epithelial cells line the laminar epidermal:dermal junction, undergo physiological change in laminitic horses, and lose versican gene expression. Versican gene expression is purportedly under control of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway and is a trigger for mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition; thus, its repression in laminar ep...
Hartley CA, Wilks CR, Studdert MJ, Gilkerson JR.To compare methods of detecting equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV1)- and EHV4-specific antibodies in horse sera. Methods: 33 acute and convalescent serum samples from experimentally or naturally infected horses after confirmed EHV1 or EHV4 infection. Methods: For each sample, serum antibody titers against EHV1 and EHV4 were determined by use of virus neutralization (VN) and complement fixation (CF) assays. The ELISA absorbance values for each serum sample were determined against the EHV1 and EHV4 recombinant ELISA antigens. Values obtained for acute and convalescent sera in each assay were compar...
Montelaro RC, West M, Issel CJ.The immunogenic contributions of the carbohydrate and peptide portions of the major envelope glycoprotein of equine infections anemia virus, EIAV gp90, were analyzed by measuring the effects of specific glycosidase and protease digestions on the reactivity of the glycoprotein with immune sera from infected horses. The results of both direct and competitive radioimmunoassay demonstrated that immune sera contained antibodies reactive with both the carbohydrate and protein moieties of EIAV gp90, with the predominant reactivity apparently against the gp90 peptide epitopes. These results contrast w...
Rossano MG, Mansfield LS, Kaneene JB, Murphy AJ, Brown CM, Schott HC, Fox JC.Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) is a neurological disease of horses and ponies caused by the apicomplexan protozoan parasite Sarcocystis neurona. The purposes of this study were to develop the most stringent criteria possible for a positive test result, to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of the EPM Western blot antibody test, and to assess the ability of bovine antibodies to Sarcocystis cruzi to act as a blocking agent to minimize false-positive results in the western blot test for S. neurona. Sarcocystis neurona merozoites harvested from equine dermal cell culture were heat ...
Guarino C, Asbie S, Rohde J, Glaser A, Wagner B.Borrelia burgdorferi can induce Lyme disease. Approved Lyme vaccines for horses are currently not available. In an effort to protect horses, veterinarians are using Lyme vaccines licensed for dogs. However, data to assess the response of horses to, or determine the efficacy of this off-label vaccine use are missing. Here, antibodies against outer surface protein A (OspA), OspC, and OspF were quantified in diagnostic serum submissions from horses with a history of vaccination with canine Lyme vaccines. The results suggested that many horses respond with low and often short-lasting antibody resp...
Lombardi F, Palumbo P, Augello FR, Giusti I, Dolo V, Guerrini L, Cifone MG, Giuliani M, Cinque B.The ability of a collagen-based matrix to support cell proliferation, migration, and infiltration has been reported; however, the direct effect of an aqueous collagen suspension on cell cultures has not been studied yet. In this work, the effects of a high-concentration aqueous suspension of a micronized type I equine collagen (EC-I) have been evaluated on a normal mouse fibroblast cell line. Immunofluorescence analysis showed the ability of EC-I to induce a significant increase of type I and III collagen levels, parallel with overexpression of crucial proteins in collagen biosynthesis, matura...
Stewart F, Gerstenberg C, Suire S, Allen WR.One of the major progesterone-dependent endometrial proteins in the mare is a novel 19 kDa lipocalin (P19). This protein is secreted by the endometrial glands and is readily detectable in uterine secretions during the luteal phase of the oestrous cycle and early pregnancy. The function of P19 is unknown, but since most lipocalins act as carriers of small hydrophobic molecules, it probably transports a maternal factor to the conceptus during pregnancy. In this study, a high titre antiserum raised against recombinant-derived P19 was used to detect by immunohistochemistry the protein in endometri...
Duran MC, Dumrath CAC, Bartmann CP, Medina Torres CE, Moschos A, Goehring LS.Serum amyloid A (SAA) is a sensitive acute-phase response (APR) marker in equids. Prominent APRs with elevations of SAA concentrations ([SAA]) have been reported after vaccination. The authors hypothesized that vaccination with an inactivated EHV-1/-4 vaccine would cause increase in [SAA] and antibody responses and that higher [SAA] would be positively correlated with the antibody titer in both equids. Twelve Haflinger horses and 12 mules were included in this longitudinal prospective study. All horses and mules were vaccinated with a commercially available EHV-1/-4 vaccine. Blood was sampled ...
Noronha LE, Antczak DF.Pregnant mares demonstrate a reduction in cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) reactivity against cells from the breeding stallion. We investigated whether this effect is limited to activity against paternal major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens, and whether it occurs during MHC-compatible pregnancy. Methods: Mares were mated to carry MHC-compatible or MHC-incompatible pregnancies. CTL activity of these mares when pregnant and non-pregnant was measured against cells from horses with MHC haplotypes unrelated to the mare or breeding stallion. Results: While carrying MHC-incompatible pregnancie...
Carossino M, Thiry E, de la Grandière A, Barrandeguy ME.The current production of inactivated vaccines for the prevention of equine alphavirus encephalitides caused by Eastern, Western and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis viruses (EEEV, WEEV, VEEV) involves the manipulation of large quantities of infectious viral particles under biosafety level 3 containment laboratories with the potential risk of transmission to the operators. Moreover, these vaccines are not capable of inducing a long-lasting immunity. Modified live vaccines, which were also attempted, maintain residual virulence and neurotropism, causing disease in both horses and humans. Therefor...
Long MT, Gibbs EP, Mellencamp MW, Zhang S, Barnett DC, Seino KK, Beachboard SE, Humphrey PP.West Nile virus (WNV) infection is endemic and able to cause disease in naive hosts. It is necessary therefore to evaluate the safety of new vaccines. Objective: To establish: 1) the safety of a modified live Flavivirus/West Nile virus (WN-FV) chimera by administration of an overdose and testing for shed of vaccine virus and spread to uninoculated sentinel horses; 2) that this vaccine did not become pathogenic once passaged in horses; and 3) vaccine safety under field conditions. Methods: There were 3 protocols: 1) In the overdose/shed and spread study, horses were vaccinated with a 100x immun...
Lucchesi PM, Parma AE.Horses infected with Leptospira interrogans present several clinical disorders, one of them being recurrent uveitis. An antigenic relationship between this bacterium and equine cornea has been described in previous studies. With the aim to make progress on defining the molecular basis and pathogenesis of equine recurrent uveitis, here we describe the cloning of one DNA fragment from a Leptospira interrogans serovar pomona genomic lambda gt11 library. Although there are references of transcription of leptospiral genes in E. coli from their own leptospiral promoters, in this recombinant construc...
Maher JK, Tresnan DB, Deacon S, Hannah L, Antczak DF.Down-regulation of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes by trophoblast cells is considered to be a primary mechanism preventing maternal immune rejection of the fetal-placental unit in mammalian pregnancy by rendering these cells, which form the primary barrier between mother and fetus, relatively non-antigenic. In situ hybridization with probes encoding human and horse MHC class I genes was used to characterize the pattern of MHC class I mRNA expression in the various forms of horse trophoblast. Strong hybridization signals were observed in the invasive trophoblast cells of chorionic ...
Herd HR, Sula MM, Starkey LA, Panciera RJ, Johnson EM, Snider TA, Holbrook TC.This report describes 2 genetically related paint mares, case Nos. 1 and 2, presented to the Oklahoma State University Boren Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital for chronic weight loss and abnormal gait, respectively. Notable findings in both cases included marked persistent eosinophilia and multiple intramuscular lateral thoracic masses. Histologic examination of masses revealed eosinophilic, centrally necrotic granulomas and marked eosinophilic myositis. Granulomas in case No. 1 also contained intralesional Sarcocystis sp material, and adjacent muscle fibers contained intact protozoal cysts...
Cequier A, Romero A, Vázquez FJ, Vitoria A, Bernad E, Fuente S, Zaragoza P, Rodellar C, Barrachina L.Immunomodulation and immunogenicity are pivotal aspects for the therapeutic use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Since the horse is highly valuable as both a patient and translational model, further knowledge on equine MSC immune properties is required. This study analysed how inflammation, chondrogenic differentiation and compatibility for the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) influence the MSC immunomodulatory-immunogenicity balance. Equine MSCs in basal conditions, pro-inflammatory primed (MSC-primed) or chondrogenically differentiated (MSC-chondro) were co-cultured with either autolo...
Aguilar-Montes de Oca S, Montes-de-Oca-Jiménez R, Carlos Vázquez-Chagoyán J, Barbabosa-Pliego A, Eliana Rivadeneira-Barreiro P....Peptides constitute an alternative and interesting option to develop treatments, vaccines, and diagnostic tools as they demonstrate their scope in several health aspects; as proof of this, commercial peptides for humans and animals are available on the market and used daily. This review aimed to know the role of peptides in the field of veterinary diagnosis, and include peptide-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (pELISA), lateral flow devices, and peptide latex agglutination tests that have been developed to detect several pathogens including viruses and bacteria of health and production ...
Bingham J, Payne J, Harper J, Frazer L, Eastwood S, Wilson S, Lowther S, Lunt R, Warner S, Carr M, Hall RA, Durr PA.West Nile virus (WNV; family Flaviviridae; genus Flavivirus) group members are an important cause of viral meningoencephalitis in some areas of the world. They exhibit marked variation in pathogenicity, with some viral lineages (such as those from North America) causing high prevalence of severe neurological disease, whilst others (such as Australian Kunjin virus) rarely cause disease. The aim of this study was to characterize WNV disease in a mouse model and to elucidate the pathogenetic features that distinguish disease variation. Tenfold dilutions of five WNV strains (New York 1999, MRM16 a...
MacKay RJ.After inflammation is initiated by detection of antigen, plasma components and activated leukocytes are concentrated at the inflammatory site. Cellular and chemical effectors of inflammation are focused on the offending antigen, usually resulting in its destruction and elimination. Activation of endogenous counter-regulatory systems damps down the inflammatory process and is the first stage of repair. In addition to local effects, the inflammatory focus may initiate a continuum of systemic acute phase responses ranging from the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) to generalized immu...
Kamm JL, Riley CB, Parlane NA, Gee EK, McIlwraith CW.Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are believed to be hypoimmunogeneic with potential use for allogeneic administration. Bone marrow was harvested from Connemara (n = 1), Standardbred (n = 6), and Thoroughbred (n = 3) horses. MSCs were grouped by their level of expression of major histocompatibility factor II (MHC II). MSCs were then sub-grouped by those MSCs derived from universal blood donor horses. MSCs were isolated and cultured using media containing fetal bovine serum until adequate numbers were acquired. The MSCs were cultured in xenogen-free media for 48 h prior to use and d...
van Ginneken MM, de Graaf-Roelfsema E, Keizer HA, van Dam KG, Wijnberg ID, van der Kolk JH, van Breda E.To investigate the effects of exercise on activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling proteins in horses. Methods: 6 young trained Standardbred geldings. Methods: Horses performed a 20-minute bout of exercise on a treadmill at 80% of maximal heart rate. Muscle biopsy specimens were obtained from the vastus lateralis and pectoralis descendens muscles before and after exercise. Amount of expression and intracellular location of phosphospecific MAPK pathway intermediates were determined by use of western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. Results: Exercise resulted in a...
Huang X, Xuan X, Verdida RA, Zhang S, Yokoyama N, Xu L, Igarashi I.An immunochromatographic test for the simultaneous detection of Babesia caballi- and B. equi-specific antibodies (BceICT) was developed using a recombinant B. caballi 48-kDa rhoptry protein (rBc48) and a recombinant truncated B. equi merozoite antigen 2 (rEMA-2t). An evaluation of the ability of the BceICT to detect antibodies in sera from uninfected horses and experimentally infected horses showed high sensitivities and specificities of 83.3% (10/12 sera) and 92.9% (52/56 sera), respectively, for the anti-B. caballi antibody and 94.1% (16/17 sera) and 88.2% (45/51 sera), respectively, for the...
Hamilton A, Harrington D, Sutcliffe IC.Acid phosphatases hydrolyse phosphomonoesters at acidic pH in a variety of physiological contexts. The recently defined class C family of acid phosphatases includes the 32 kDa LppC lipoprotein of Streptococcus equisimilis. To define further the distribution of acid phosphatases in the genus Streptococcus we have examined the equine pathogens Streptococcus equi subsp. equi and Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus. Whole cell assays indicated that these organisms possess two acid phosphatases with activity optima at pH 5.0 and pH 6.0-6.5 and that only the former of these was, like LppC, resis...
Zhao S, Pan F, Cai S, Yi J, Zhou L, Liu Z.This study systematically investigated the differences in allergenicity of casein in cow milk (CM), goat milk (GM), camel milk (CAM), and mare milk (MM) from protein structures using bioinformatics. Primary structure sequence analysis reveals high sequence similarity between the -casein of CM and GM, while all allergenic subtypes are likely to have good hydrophilicity and thermal stability. By analyzing linear B-cell epitope, T-cell epitope, and allergenic peptides, the strongest casein allergenicity is observed for CM, followed by GM, and the casein of MM has the weakest allergenicity. Meanwh...
Demmers S, Johannisson A, Gröndahl G, Jensen-Waern M.The aim of this study was to investigate the phagocytic and killing capacities as well as expression of CD18 of neutrophils obtained from healthy foals from birth to age 8 months. Blood was taken from 6 Standardbred foals at 7 time-points between ages 2-56 days and thereafter once a month. For comparison, cells from 16 mature horses were evaluated. Neutrophil phagocytosis of yeast cells was assessed by flow cytometry after opsonisation with mature pooled serum, autologous serum or anti-yeast IgG. The killing capacity of the neutrophils, as indicated by the oxidative burst, was monitored by che...
Prescott JF, Coshan-Gauthier R, Barksdale L.Antibody to equi factor(s) in cases of Corynebacterium equi pneumonia in foals was detected using C. pseudotuberculosis exotoxin sensitized calf red blood cells. The test was standardized using antitoxin produced in rabbits by injection of equi factor(s). All sera from ten foals with culture-diagnosed C. equi pneumonia had antibodies to equi factor(s) (titre range 8-256, mean 74.0) and nine sera from 11 foals with suspected C. equi pneumonia also showed antibodies (titre range 4-512, mean 136.4). Two of five pneumonia foals with transtracheal aspirate cultures not yielding C. equi had such ant...
Rodríguez M, Joseph S, Pfeffer M, Raghavan R, Wernery U.African horse sickness (AHS) is a serious viral disease of equids resulting in the deaths of many equids in sub-Saharan Africa that has been recognized for centuries. This has significant economic impact on the horse industry, despite the good husbandry practices. Currently, prevention and control of the disease is based on administration of live attenuated vaccines and control of the arthropod vectors. Results: A total of 29 horses in 2 groups, were vaccinated. Eighteen horses in Group 1 were further divided into 9 subgroups of 2 horses each, were individually immunised with one of 1 to 9 AHS...
Barba M, Daly JM.Equine influenza virus remains a serious health and potential economic problem throughout most parts of the world, despite intensive vaccination programs in some horse populations. The influenza non-structural protein 1 (NS1) has multiple functions involved in the regulation of several cellular and viral processes during influenza infection. We review the strategies that NS1 uses to facilitate virus replication and inhibit antiviral responses in the host, including sequestering of double-stranded RNA, direct modulation of protein kinase R activity and inhibition of transcription and translatio...
Azab W, Harman R, Miller D, Tallmadge R, Frampton AR, Antczak DF, Osterrieder N.Equid herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) was shown to use an unusual receptor for cellular entry - MHC-I molecules. Here, we demonstrated that the closely related EHV, EHV-4, also uses this strategy for cellular invasion, both in equine cells in culture and in the heterologous, non-permissive murine mastocytoma cell line (P815) after stable transfection with horse MHC-I genes. Using a panel of P815 cell lines transfected with individual horse MHC-I genes, we provided support for the hypothesis that EHV-1 and EHV-4 target classical polymorphic MHC-I molecules as viral entry receptors. All known equine ...
Baalsrud KJ, Overnes G.Fifteen horses used for serum production were maintained on low vitamin E and selenium diets. They were divided into four groups receiving: Group 1 no supplements, Group 2 vitamin E, Group 3 selenium and Group 4 both vitamin E and selenium. The humoral immune response to novel antigens, such as tetanus toxoid and equine influenza virus, was increased in groups receiving either vitamin E or selenium/vitamin E. No effects were recorded on the titres against Escherichia coli or the levels of immunoglobulin G.
Brault SA, Blanchard MT, Gardner IA, Stott JL, Pusterla N, Mapes SM, Vernau W, Dejong KD, Maclachlan NJ.Equid herpesvirus-2 (EHV-2) infection is ubiquitous in horses. Although EHV-2 infection has been associated with several disease syndromes, its true pathogenic significance in horses remains uncertain. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), another gammaherpesvirus, has been shown to cause febrile illness in humans related to its immunopathologic effects. Thus, the purpose of this study was to describe the ontogeny of the immune response of a cohort of 9 foals to natural infection with EHV-2 by evaluating serial complete blood counts, lymphocyte morphology, cytokine gene expression in peripheral blood mono...
