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Journal of Virology, March 2000, p. 2094-2106, Vol. 74, No. 5
Department of Diagnostic
Medicine/Pathobiology1 and Department of
Anatomy and Physiology,2 College of
Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506
Received 8 October 1999/Accepted 2 December 1999
Glycoprotein E (gE) is important for full virulence potential of
the alphaherpesviruses in both natural and laboratory hosts. The gE
sequence of the neurovirulent bovine herpesvirus 5 (BHV-5) was
determined and compared with that of the nonneurovirulent BHV-1.
Alignment of the predicted amino acid sequences of BHV-1 and BHV-5 gE
open reading frames showed that they had 72% identity and 77%
similarity. To determine the role of gE in the differential neuropathogenesis of BHV-1 and BHV-5, we have constructed BHV-1 and
BHV-5 recombinants: gE-deleted BHV-5 (BHV-5gE
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Bovine Herpesvirus 5 Glycoprotein E Is Important
for Neuroinvasiveness and Neurovirulence in the Olfactory Pathway
of the Rabbit

), BHV-5 expressing BHV-1 gE (BHV-5gE1), and BHV-1 expressing BHV-5 gE (BHV-1gE5). Neurovirulence properties of these recombinant viruses were analyzed using a rabbit seizure model (S. I. Chowdhury et al., J. Comp. Pathol. 117:295-310, 1997) that distinguished wild-type BHV-1 and -5 based on their differential neuropathogenesis. Intranasal inoculation of BHV-5 gE
and BHV-5gE1 produced significantly reduced neurological signs that affected only 10% of the infected rabbits. The
recombinant BHV-1gE5 did not invade the central nervous system (CNS).
Virus isolation and immunohistochemistry data suggest that these
recombinants replicate and spread significantly less efficiently in the
brain than BHV-5 gE revertant or wild-type BHV-5, which produced severe
neurological signs in 70 to 80% rabbits. Taken together, the results
of neurological signs, brain lesions, virus isolation, and
immunohistochemistry indicate that BHV-5 gE is important for efficient
neural spread and neurovirulence within the CNS and could not be
replaced by BHV-1 gE. However, BHV-5 gE is not required for initial
viral entry into olfactory pathway.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine,
Kansas State University, 1800 Denison Ave., Manhattan, KS 66506-5606. Phone: (785) 532-4616. Fax: (785) 532-4851. E-mail:
Chowdh{at}vet.ksu.edu.
Contribution 00-81-J, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Present address: Division of Molecular Immunology, La Jolla
Institute for Allergy and Immunology, San Diego, CA 92121.
§
Present address: Department of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine, University of Ankara, Ankara 06110, Turkey.
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