Localization of influenza virus sialoreceptors in equine respiratory tract.
- Journal Article
Summary
The research paper presents a study focused on pinpointing the areas of the equine (horse) respiratory tract that express the specific receptor for the equine influenza virus. The aim is to understand more about how the virus affects horses, which could potentially lead to more effective treatments.
Study’s Purpose
The purpose of the study revolves around identifying and examining the presence of sialoderivatives (the specific receptors for influenza) in the respiratory tract of horses. In the process of understanding how these receptors interact with influenza, the team collected and studied parts of the respiratory tract such as the nasal mucosae, trachea, bronchus, and lung parenchyma from eight mature horses.
- A key focus was to identify where in the respiratory system the sialic acid residues, the components believed to interact with the influenza virus, are located.
- The study enlisted several techniques for this, including mild and strong periodate oxidation, saponification, lectin histochemistry, sialidase digestion and also the direct detection of sialic acid residues.
Findings
The results found that no differences occurred between sexes. More crucially:
- Sialic acid residues were found in the nasal mucus secretion, linked to galactose via an alpha2-3 linkage, and chiefly C9 acetylated.
- In the nasal and tracheal epithelial lining, sialic acid residues were present as periodate labile residues with alpha2-3 and/or alpha2-6 linkages to galactose.
- Specific receptors for equine influenza viruses were confirmed to be present at the nasal and tracheal epithelial lining cell coat levels, and in some trachea epithelial cells.
Implications
Understanding the location of these receptors helps to clarify how the equine influenza virus infects horses and where the main sites of infection could be. By showing that specific receptors for equine influenza exist mainly in the nasal and tracheal linings, it also suggests that horses might have a defence system that prevents infection:
- A mucous layer in the nasal region might be capable of inactivating the hemagglutinins of the equine influenza virus.
- The presence of other sialoreceptors which can mask the influenza-specific ones could also serve as another layer of defence.
These observations could pave the way for the development of new intervention strategies to effectively treat equine influenza.
Cite This Article
Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Camerino, Matelica (MC), Italy. paola.scocco@unicam.it
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Female
- Horse Diseases
- Horses
- Immunoenzyme Techniques
- Influenza A Virus, H3N8 Subtype / isolation & purification
- Influenza A Virus, H3N8 Subtype / metabolism
- Lectins / metabolism
- Male
- N-Acetylneuraminic Acid / metabolism
- Orthomyxoviridae Infections / virology
- Receptors, Cell Surface / metabolism
- Receptors, Virus / metabolism
- Respiratory Tract Infections / virology
Citations
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