Article (Scientific journals)
Illumination of murine gammaherpesvirus-68 cycle reveals a sexual transmission route from females to males in laboratory mice.
François, Sylvie; Vidick, Sarah; Sarlet, Michaël et al.
2013In PLoS Pathogens, 9 (4), p. 1003292
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
 

Files


Full Text
journal.ppat.1003292.pdf
Publisher postprint (20.77 MB) Creative Commons License - Attribution
Download

All documents in ORBi are protected by a user license.

Send to



Details



Abstract :
[en] Transmission is a matter of life or death for pathogen lineages and can therefore be considered as the main motor of their evolution. Gammaherpesviruses are archetypal pathogenic persistent viruses which have evolved to be transmitted in presence of specific immune response. Identifying their mode of transmission and their mechanisms of immune evasion is therefore essential to develop prophylactic and therapeutic strategies against these infections. As the known human gammaherpesviruses, Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi's Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus are host-specific and lack a convenient in vivo infection model; related animal gammaherpesviruses, such as murine gammaherpesvirus-68 (MHV-68), are commonly used as general models of gammaherpesvirus infections in vivo. To date, it has however never been possible to monitor viral excretion or virus transmission of MHV-68 in laboratory mice population. In this study, we have used MHV-68 associated with global luciferase imaging to investigate potential excretion sites of this virus in laboratory mice. This allowed us to identify a genital excretion site of MHV-68 following intranasal infection and latency establishment in female mice. This excretion occurred at the external border of the vagina and was dependent on the presence of estrogens. However, MHV-68 vaginal excretion was not associated with vertical transmission to the litter or with horizontal transmission to female mice. In contrast, we observed efficient virus transmission to naive males after sexual contact. In vivo imaging allowed us to show that MHV-68 firstly replicated in penis epithelium and corpus cavernosum before spreading to draining lymph nodes and spleen. All together, those results revealed the first experimental transmission model for MHV-68 in laboratory mice. In the future, this model could help us to better understand the biology of gammaherpesviruses and could also allow the development of strategies that could prevent the spread of these viruses in natural populations.
Disciplines :
Microbiology
Author, co-author :
François, Sylvie ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Immunologie et vaccinologie
Vidick, Sarah ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Immunologie et vaccinologie
Sarlet, Michaël 
Desmecht, Daniel ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de morphologie et pathologie > Pathologie spéciale et autopsies
Drion, Pierre ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences biomédicales et précliniques > GIGA-R:Méth. expér.des anim. de labo et éth. en expér. anim.
Stevenson, Philip G.
Vanderplasschen, Alain ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Immunologie et vaccinologie
Gillet, Laurent  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège
Language :
English
Title :
Illumination of murine gammaherpesvirus-68 cycle reveals a sexual transmission route from females to males in laboratory mice.
Publication date :
2013
Journal title :
PLoS Pathogens
ISSN :
1553-7366
eISSN :
1553-7374
Publisher :
Public Library of Science, United States - California
Volume :
9
Issue :
4
Pages :
e1003292
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 24 June 2013

Statistics


Number of views
135 (22 by ULiège)
Number of downloads
9 (3 by ULiège)

Scopus citations®
 
38
Scopus citations®
without self-citations
19
OpenCitations
 
40

Bibliography


Similar publications



Contact ORBi