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Hinojosa Y, Liniger M, García-Nicolás O, Gerber M, Rajaratnam A, Muñoz-González S, Coronado L, Frías MT, Perera CL, Ganges L, Ruggli N. Evolutionary-Related High- and Low-Virulent Classical Swine Fever Virus Isolates Reveal Viral Determinants of Virulence. Viruses 2024; 16:147. [PMID: 38275957 PMCID: PMC10820463 DOI: 10.3390/v16010147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 01/13/2024] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Classical swine fever (CSF) has been eradicated from Western and Central Europe but remains endemic in parts of Central and South America, Asia, and the Caribbean. CSF virus (CSFV) has been endemic in Cuba since 1993, most likely following an escape of the highly virulent Margarita/1958 strain. In recent years, chronic and persistent infections with low-virulent CSFV have been observed. Amino acid substitutions located in immunodominant epitopes of the envelope glycoprotein E2 of the attenuated isolates were attributed to positive selection due to suboptimal vaccination and control. To obtain a complete picture of the mutations involved in attenuation, we applied forward and reverse genetics using the evolutionary-related low-virulent CSFV/Pinar del Rio (CSF1058)/2010 (PdR) and highly virulent Margarita/1958 isolates. Sequence comparison of the two viruses recovered from experimental infections in pigs revealed 40 amino acid differences. Interestingly, the amino acid substitutions clustered in E2 and the NS5A and NS5B proteins. A long poly-uridine sequence was identified previously in the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of PdR. We constructed functional cDNA clones of the PdR and Margarita strains and generated eight recombinant viruses by introducing single or multiple gene fragments from Margarita into the PdR backbone. All chimeric viruses had comparable replication characteristics in porcine monocyte-derived macrophages. Recombinant PdR viruses carrying either E2 or NS5A/NS5B of Margarita, with 36 or 5 uridines in the 3'UTR, remained low virulent in 3-month-old pigs. The combination of these elements recovered the high-virulent Margarita phenotype. These results show that CSFV evolution towards attenuated variants in the field involved mutations in both structural and non-structural proteins and the UTRs, which act synergistically to determine virulence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoandry Hinojosa
- Division of Virology, Institute of Virology and Immunology IVI, 3147 Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; (Y.H.); (M.L.); (O.G.-N.); (M.G.)
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP), University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB), University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (CENSA), San José de las Lajas 32700, Cuba; (M.T.F.); (C.L.P.)
| | - Matthias Liniger
- Division of Virology, Institute of Virology and Immunology IVI, 3147 Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; (Y.H.); (M.L.); (O.G.-N.); (M.G.)
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP), University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Obdulio García-Nicolás
- Division of Virology, Institute of Virology and Immunology IVI, 3147 Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; (Y.H.); (M.L.); (O.G.-N.); (M.G.)
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP), University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Markus Gerber
- Division of Virology, Institute of Virology and Immunology IVI, 3147 Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; (Y.H.); (M.L.); (O.G.-N.); (M.G.)
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP), University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Anojen Rajaratnam
- Division of Virology, Institute of Virology and Immunology IVI, 3147 Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; (Y.H.); (M.L.); (O.G.-N.); (M.G.)
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP), University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Sara Muñoz-González
- WOAH Reference Laboratory for Classical Swine Fever, IRTA-CReSA, 08193 Barcelona, Spain; (S.M.-G.); (L.C.); (L.G.)
- Unitat Mixta d’Investigació IRTA-UAB en Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), 08193 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Liani Coronado
- WOAH Reference Laboratory for Classical Swine Fever, IRTA-CReSA, 08193 Barcelona, Spain; (S.M.-G.); (L.C.); (L.G.)
- Unitat Mixta d’Investigació IRTA-UAB en Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), 08193 Barcelona, Spain
- IRTA, Programa de Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), 08193 Barcelona, Spain
| | - María Teresa Frías
- Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (CENSA), San José de las Lajas 32700, Cuba; (M.T.F.); (C.L.P.)
| | - Carmen Laura Perera
- Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (CENSA), San José de las Lajas 32700, Cuba; (M.T.F.); (C.L.P.)
| | - Llilianne Ganges
- WOAH Reference Laboratory for Classical Swine Fever, IRTA-CReSA, 08193 Barcelona, Spain; (S.M.-G.); (L.C.); (L.G.)
- Unitat Mixta d’Investigació IRTA-UAB en Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), 08193 Barcelona, Spain
- IRTA, Programa de Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), 08193 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Nicolas Ruggli
- Division of Virology, Institute of Virology and Immunology IVI, 3147 Mittelhäusern, Switzerland; (Y.H.); (M.L.); (O.G.-N.); (M.G.)
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP), University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
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Analysis of Virus Population Profiles within Pigs Infected with Virulent Classical Swine Fever Viruses: Evidence for Bottlenecks in Transmission but Absence of Tissue-Specific Virus Variants. J Virol 2020; 94:JVI.01119-20. [PMID: 32699086 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01119-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) contains a specific motif within the E2 glycoprotein that differs between strains of different virulence. In the highly virulent CSFV strain Koslov, this motif comprises residues S763/L764 in the polyprotein. However, L763/P764 represent the predominant alleles in published CSFV genomes. In this study, changes were introduced into the CSFV strain Koslov (here called vKos_SL) to generate modified CSFVs with substitutions at residues 763 and/or 764 (vKos_LL, vKos_SP, and vKos_LP). The properties of these mutant viruses, in comparison to those of vKos_SL, were determined in pigs. Each of the viruses was virulent and induced typical clinical signs of CSF, but the vKos_LP strain produced them significantly earlier. Full-length CSFV cDNA amplicons (12.3 kb) derived from sera of infected pigs were deep sequenced and cloned to reveal the individual haplotypes that contributed to the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles observed in the virus population. The SNP profiles for vKos_SL and vKos_LL displayed low-level heterogeneity across the entire genome, whereas vKos_SP and vKos_LP displayed limited diversity with a few high-frequency SNPs. This indicated that vKos_SL and vKos_LL exhibited a higher level of fitness in the host and more stability at the consensus level, whereas several consensus changes were observed in the vKos_SP and vKos_LP sequences, pointing to adaptation. For each virus, only a subset of the variants present within the virus inoculums were maintained in the infected pigs. No clear tissue-dependent quasispecies differentiation occurred within inoculated pigs; however, clear evidence for transmission bottlenecks to contact animals was observed, with subsequent loss of sequence diversity.IMPORTANCE The surface-exposed E2 protein of classical swine fever virus is required for its interaction with host cells. A short motif within this protein varies between strains of different virulence. The importance of two particular amino acid residues in determining the properties of a highly virulent strain of the virus has been analyzed. Each of the different viruses tested proved highly virulent, but one of them produced earlier, but not more severe, disease. By analyzing the virus genomes present within infected pigs, it was found that the viruses which replicated within inoculated animals were only a subset of those within the virus inoculum. Furthermore, following contact transmission, it was shown that a very restricted set of viruses had transferred between animals. There were no significant differences in the virus populations present in various tissues of the infected animals. These results indicate mechanisms of virus population change during transmission between animals.
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They are what you eat: Shaping of viral populations through nutrition and consequences for virulence. PLoS Pathog 2020; 16:e1008711. [PMID: 32790755 PMCID: PMC7425860 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
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Coronado L, Bohórquez JA, Muñoz-González S, Perez LJ, Rosell R, Fonseca O, Delgado L, Perera CL, Frías MT, Ganges L. Investigation of chronic and persistent classical swine fever infections under field conditions and their impact on vaccine efficacy. BMC Vet Res 2019; 15:247. [PMID: 31307464 PMCID: PMC6632193 DOI: 10.1186/s12917-019-1982-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2018] [Accepted: 06/26/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Recent studies have hypothesized that circulation of classical swine fever virus (CSFV) variants when the immunity induced by the vaccine is not sterilizing might favour viral persistence. Likewise, in addition to congenital viral persistence, CSFV has also been proven to generate postnatal viral persistence. Under experimental conditions, postnatal persistently infected pigs were unable to elicit a specific immune response to a CSFV live attenuated vaccine via the mechanism known as superinfection exclusion (SIE). Here, we study whether subclinical forms of classical swine fever (CSF) may be present in a conventional farm in an endemic country and evaluate vaccine efficacy under these types of infections in field conditions. Results Six litters born from CSF-vaccinated gilts were randomly chosen from a commercial Cuban farm at 33 days of age (weaning). At this time, the piglets were vaccinated with a lapinized live attenuated CSFV C-strain vaccine. Virological and immunological analyses were performed before and after vaccination. The piglets were clinically healthy at weaning; however, 82% were viraemic, and the rectal swabs in most of the remaining 18% were positive. Only five piglets from one litter showed a specific antibody response. The tonsils and rectal swabs of five sows were CSFV positive, and only one of the sows showed an antibody response. After vaccination, 98% of the piglets were unable to clear the virus and to seroconvert, and some of the piglets showed polyarthritis and wasting after 36 days post vaccination. The CSFV E2 glycoprotein sequences recovered from one pig per litter were the same. The amino acid positions 72(R), 20(L) and 195(N) of E2 were identified in silico as positions associated with adaptive advantage. Conclusions Circulation of chronic and persistent CSF infections was demonstrated in field conditions under a vaccination programme. Persistent infection was predominant. Here, we provide evidence that, in field conditions, subclinical infections are not detected by clinical diagnosis and, despite being infected with CSFV, the animals are vaccinated, rather than diagnosed and eliminated. These animals are refractory to vaccination, likely due to the SIE phenomenon. Improvement of vaccination strategies and diagnosis of subclinical forms of CSF is imperative for CSF eradication. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-019-1982-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liani Coronado
- National Centre for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA), OIE Collaborating Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction in Animal Health, San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba
| | - Jose Alejandro Bohórquez
- OIE Reference Laboratory for Classical Swine Fever, IRTA-CReSA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Sara Muñoz-González
- OIE Reference Laboratory for Classical Swine Fever, IRTA-CReSA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Lester Josue Perez
- University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Science, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Urbana, Illinois, 61802, United States
| | - Rosa Rosell
- OIE Reference Laboratory for Classical Swine Fever, IRTA-CReSA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain.,Departament d'Agricultura Ramaderia i Pesca (DARP), Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA, IRTA-UAB), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Osvaldo Fonseca
- National Centre for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA), OIE Collaborating Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction in Animal Health, San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba
| | - Laiyen Delgado
- National Centre for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA), OIE Collaborating Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction in Animal Health, San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba
| | - Carmen Laura Perera
- National Centre for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA), OIE Collaborating Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction in Animal Health, San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba
| | - Maria Teresa Frías
- National Centre for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA), OIE Collaborating Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction in Animal Health, San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba
| | - Llilianne Ganges
- OIE Reference Laboratory for Classical Swine Fever, IRTA-CReSA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain.
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Johnston CM, Fahnøe U, Belsham GJ, Rasmussen TB. Strategy for efficient generation of numerous full-length cDNA clones of classical swine fever virus for haplotyping. BMC Genomics 2018; 19:600. [PMID: 30092775 PMCID: PMC6085635 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-018-4971-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2018] [Accepted: 07/31/2018] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Direct molecular cloning of full-length cDNAs derived from viral RNA is an approach to identify the individual viral genomes within a virus population. This enables characterization of distinct viral haplotypes present during infection. Results In this study, we recover individual genomes of classical swine fever virus (CSFV), present in a pig infected with vKos that was rescued from a cDNA clone corresponding to the highly virulent CSFV Koslov strain. Full-length cDNA amplicons (ca. 12.3 kb) were made by long RT-PCR, using RNA extracted from serum, and inserted directly into a cloning vector prior to detailed characterization of the individual viral genome sequences. The amplicons used for cloning were deep sequenced, which revealed low level sequence variation (< 5%) scattered across the genome consistent with the clone-derived origin of vKos. Numerous full-length cDNA clones were generated using these amplicons and full-genome sequencing of individual cDNA clones revealed insights into the virus diversity and the haplotypes present during infection. Most cDNA clones were unique, containing several single-nucleotide polymorphisms, and phylogenetic reconstruction revealed a low degree of order. Conclusions This optimized methodology enables highly efficient construction of full-length cDNA clones corresponding to individual viral genomes present within RNA virus populations. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-4971-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camille Melissa Johnston
- DTU National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Lindholm, DK-4771, Kalvehave, Denmark
| | - Ulrik Fahnøe
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.,Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Graham J Belsham
- DTU National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Lindholm, DK-4771, Kalvehave, Denmark
| | - Thomas Bruun Rasmussen
- DTU National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Lindholm, DK-4771, Kalvehave, Denmark.
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Classical Swine Fever-An Updated Review. Viruses 2017; 9:v9040086. [PMID: 28430168 PMCID: PMC5408692 DOI: 10.3390/v9040086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 160] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2017] [Revised: 04/11/2017] [Accepted: 04/13/2017] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Classical swine fever (CSF) remains one of the most important transboundary viral diseases of swine worldwide. The causative agent is CSF virus, a small, enveloped RNA virus of the genus Pestivirus. Based on partial sequences, three genotypes can be distinguished that do not, however, directly correlate with virulence. Depending on both virus and host factors, a wide range of clinical syndromes can be observed and thus, laboratory confirmation is mandatory. To this means, both direct and indirect methods are utilized with an increasing degree of commercialization. Both infections in domestic pigs and wild boar are of great relevance; and wild boars are a reservoir host transmitting the virus sporadically also to pig farms. Control strategies for epidemic outbreaks in free countries are mainly based on classical intervention measures; i.e., quarantine and strict culling of affected herds. In these countries, vaccination is only an emergency option. However, live vaccines are used for controlling the disease in endemically infected regions in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Americas, and some African countries. Here, we will provide a concise, updated review on virus properties, clinical signs and pathology, epidemiology, pathogenesis and immune responses, diagnosis and vaccination possibilities.
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