Mouse-pox; infectious ectromelia of mice; a review.
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Mousepox is an orthopoxvirus infection of mice that was discovered in laboratory mice in England in 1930. Depending upon mouse genotype, it may produce a severe disease with acute hepatitis and high mortality, a generalized rash in animals that survive longer, or a trivial inapparent infection. It has long been enzootic in breeding stocks of mice in Europe, Japan, and China but not in North America and Australia. However, it has been imported into the USA on several occasions, sometimes causing severe epizootics. It may contaminate or replace various viruses that are passaged in mice and may be transferred between mouse stocks in intact mice or in mouse tumors or tissues. Vaccination with vaccinia virus provides protection and has been used to eradicate virus from mouse colonies. Depopulation and sterilization of infected animal quarters my be required.
The ectromelia virus (EV) has been recognized as the etiological agent of a relatively common infection in laboratory mouse colonies around the world, i.e., Europe (including Poland), USA and Asia. Due to widespread use of mice in biomedical research, it is important to study the biology of strains characteristic for a given country. This is particularly significant for the diagnosis, prevention and control ectromelia. In severe epizootics, approximately 90% morbidity is observed within colonies and mortality rate exceeding 70% is observed within 4 to 20 days from the appearance of clinical symptoms. The resistance to lethal infection is mouse strain-dependent. Several inbred strains of mice, including C57BL/6 and AKR are resistant to the lethal effects of EV infection, while others, such as A and BALB/c are susceptible. Recent studies indicate that (1) T lymphocytes, NK cells and interferon (IFN)-dependent host defenses must operate for the expression of resistance, (2) virus-specific T-cell precursors appear earlier in regional lymph nodes of resistant than susceptible mice, and (3) resistance mechanisms are expressed during early stages of infection. Over the past several years, (1) induction of anti-EV cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes (CTL) responses in vivo in the absence of CD4+ (T helper) cells, (2) importance of some cytokines e.g., IFN-gamma in EV clearance at all stages of infection, and (3) induction of nitric oxide (NO) synthase, which is necessary for a substantial antiviral activity of IFN-gamma, have been demonstrated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Mousepox (infectious ectromelia) may be used as a model for studies on the cellular immune response and pathogenesis of generalized viral infections. Ectromelia virus (EV) initially replicates in the footpad (f.p.) skin at the site of infection, next in draining lymph nodes, and then in the spleen and liver where the virus may induce extensive necrotic process with inflammatory reaction. We show in this study that after recipient BALB/c mice (H-2d) f.p. infection with EV prior to the adoptive transfer of syngeneic donor EV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes interferon-gamma-positive (IFN-gamma-+), interleukin-2-positive (IL-2+), and IL-4+ of both phenotypes, CD8+ approximately 70%, and CD4+ approximately 30%) preferentially migrated to the inguinal and auxiliary lymph nodes, spleen, liver, and skin at the site of infection (f.p.). Many particles of EV with the morphology characteristic for orthopoxviruses and virus-specific immunofluorescence within the cells of inguinal and auxiliary lymph nodes, liver, spleen, and skin have been observed using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and fluorescence antibody technique, respectively. Results presented in this article support the concept that immune T cells adoptively transferred into infected recipient mice are able not only to specific migration in the host and homing in the sites of virus replication, but also to develop immunoprotection in the transferred animals.
The effects of vaccination with the IHD-T strain of vaccinia virus on the course and severity of ectromelia virus infection was investigated in BALB/c mice. Protection from lethal mousepox occurred when mice were vaccinated and challenged on the same day and protection persisted for at least 9 months. Vaccinated mice were not protected from infection or from lesions, but necrotic lesions in vaccinated mice were usually mild and were accompanied by inflammation, whereas necrosis in unvaccinated mice was severe and not accompanied by inflammation. Inoculated feet of previously vaccinated mice contained infectious ectromelia virus for at least 28 days. Vaccinated-challenged mice transmitted infection to non-immune cagemates for up to 2 weeks, but only rarely transmitted virus to vaccinated cagemates. These results emphasize that vaccination protects mice against lethal mousepox, but it does not prevent infection. In addition, vaccination reduces, but does not eliminate, transmission of infection to non-immune and immune mice.
Mice with self-limiting P. yoelii or fatal P. berghei infections exhibited a markedly impaired ability to mount specific splenic cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses to immunization with infectious ectromelia (EV), vaccinia (VAC), or lymphocytic choriomeningitis viruses (LCMV). Lymph node responsiveness, however, was not impaired. Primary CTL responses were depressed in mice immunized 7 days after P. berghei infection, while in P. yoelii-infected mice, depressed responses were detected only during the period corresponding with maximal parasitemia (days 9-12). Secondary VAC-specific CTL responses in vitro by spleen cells of mice previously immunized during P. yoelii infection were also depressed if UV-inactivated rather than infectious VAC was used for immunization. In addition, spleen cells of mice already immune to VAC failed to yield normal secondary CTL responses in vitro during the period of maximal P. yoelii parasitaemia. Collectively, these findings indicate that, during patent malaria infections, priming for and expression of virus-specific CTL responses may be inhibited.
A new poxvirus was isolated in 1974 from the kidney of a wild big gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) caught in Turkmenia, where these gerbils are wide-spread. The virus resembles cowpox virus and is markedly different from the virus of infectious ectromelia, the best-known poxvirus of rodents. The new virus is apparently identical to other poxvirus isolates made from white rats and Felidae in the Moscow Zoo. Experimental inoculation of the natural hosts--big gerbils and yellow susliks (Citellus fulvus)--produced a severe infection with a high mortality rate. Trnasmission of virus to uninoculated cage mates was shown to occur. Virus persisted in convalescent animals and was present in urine 3 weeks after inoculation and in kidney and testis for at least 5 weeks after inoculation. The role of rodents as natural hosts of poxviruses is discussed.
Because they were the largest of all viruses and could be visualised with a light microscope, the poxviruses were the first viruses to be intensively studied in the laboratory. It was clear from an early date that they caused important diseases of humans and their domestic animals, such as smallpox, cowpox, camelpox, sheeppox, fowlpox and goatpox. This essay recounts some of the early history of their recognition and classification and then expands on aspects of research on poxviruses in which the author has been involved. Studies on the best-known genus, Orthopoxvirus, relate to the use of infectious ectromelia of mice as a model for smallpox, embracing both experimental epidemiology and pathogenesis, studies on the genetics of vaccinia virus and the problem of non-genetic reactivation (previously termed 'transformation') and the campaign for the global eradication of smallpox. The other group of poxviruses described here, the genus Leporipoxvirus, came to prominence when the myxoma virus was used for the biological control of Australian wild rabbits. This provided a unique natural experiment on the coevolution of a virus and its host. Future research will include further studies of the many immunomodulatory genes found in all poxviruses of vertebrates, since these provide clues about the workings of the immune system and how viruses have evolved to evade it. Some of the many recombinant poxvirus constructs currently being studied may come into use as vaccines or for immunocontraception. A field that warrants study but will probably remain neglected is the natural history of skunkpox, raccoonpox, taterapox, yabapox, tanapox and other little-known poxviruses. A dismal prospect is the possible use of smallpox virus for bioterrorism.