Natural antibody--complement dependent neutralization of bovine herpesvirus 4 by human serum

Microbes Infect. 2007 Nov-Dec;9(14-15):1530-7. doi: 10.1016/j.micinf.2007.08.007. Epub 2007 Aug 31.

Abstract

In contrast to most gammaherpesviruses, Bovine herpesvirus 4 (BoHV-4) has a broad range of host species both in vitro and in vivo. Several in vitro studies demonstrated that some human cell lines are sensitive or even permissive to BoHV-4. These observations led to the hypothesis that cross-species transmission of BoHV-4 could lead to human infections. In the present study, we investigate the sensitivity of BoHV-4 to neutralization by naïve human sera in order to determine if humans exhibit innate anti-viral activities against this virus. Our results demonstrate that human sera from naïve individuals, in contrast to the sera of naïve subjects from various animal species, neutralize BoHV-4 efficiently. A series of complementary experiments were performed to unravel the mechanism(s) of this neutralization. The data obtained in this study demonstrates that human serum neutralizes BoHV-4 in a complement dependent manner activated by natural antibodies raised against the Galalpha1-3Galbeta1-4GlcNAc-R epitope expressed by bovine cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Viral / immunology*
  • Cattle
  • Cell Line
  • Chlorocebus aethiops
  • Complement Activation*
  • Complement Pathway, Classical / immunology*
  • Herpesvirus 4, Bovine / immunology*
  • Humans
  • Immune Sera / immunology*
  • Immunity, Innate
  • Immunoglobulin G / immunology
  • Immunoglobulin M / immunology
  • Neutralization Tests
  • Trisaccharides / immunology
  • Vero Cells

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Immune Sera
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Immunoglobulin M
  • Trisaccharides
  • alpha-galactosyl epitope