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Viruses
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African Swine Fever Virus: Infection and Immunity
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African Swine Fever Virus: Infection and Immunity

A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Viral Immunology, Vaccines, and Antivirals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 October 2023) | Viewed by 9700

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Denis Kolbasov

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Federal Research Center for Virology and Microbiology (FRCVM), Volginsky, Russia
Interests: molecular epidemiology; transboundary animal diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Daniel L. Rock

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
Interests: molecular mechanisms of viral virulence; host range and immunomodulation; ASFV vaccine design and development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

African swine fever (ASF) is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease of domestic swine, with mortality rates approaching 100%. Devastating ASF outbreaks and continuing epidemics, starting in the Caucasus region and persisting in the Russian Federation, Europe, China, and other parts of Southeast Asia (2007 to date) highlight its significance. ASF strain Georgia-07 and its derivatives are now endemic in extensive regions of Europe and Asia and are “out of Africa” forever, a situation that poses a grave, if not an existential threat, to the swine industry worldwide. Although the current concern is Georgia-07, other emerging ASFV strains may threaten in the indefinite future. ASF’s potential to spread and become endemic in new regions, its rapid and efficient transmission among pigs, and the relative stability of the causative agent ASF virus (ASFV) in the environment all provide significant challenges for disease control. Effective and robust methods, including vaccines for ASF response and recovery, are needed immediately. Despite the continual ASF threat and the fact that the disease was first described by Montgomery in 1921, it is surprising that no ASF vaccine is available.

Current data indicate that ASF vaccines could indeed be developed, because pigs surviving acute ASFV infection develop long-term resistance to homologous virus challenge, but rarely to heterologous virus challenge. Vaccine development has been hindered by large gaps in knowledge concerning aspects of ASFV infection and immunity: viral pathogenesis and persistence, viral determinants of virulence and host range, critical host protective responses, the extent of ASFV strain variation in nature and its impact on cross protection, and the ASFV proteins (protective antigens; PAs) responsible for inducing protective host responses.

Exciting research progress addressing aspects of these knowledge gaps is being made. This Special Issues of Viruses will provide a scientific forum for the presentation and discussion of original research reports, focused topical reviews and opinion articles on these critical vaccine-development related questions.

Dr. Denis Kolbasov
Dr. Daniel L. Rock
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • African swine fever
  • vaccines
  • virulence
  • protection

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 5432 KiB  
Article
Inoculation with ASFV-Katanga-350 Partially Protects Pigs from Death during Subsequent Infection with Heterologous Type ASFV-Stavropol 01/08
by Mikhail E. Vlasov, Irina P. Sindryakova, Dmitry A. Kudrjashov, Sergey Y. Morgunov, Olga L. Kolbasova, Valentina M. Lyska, Sergey P. Zhivoderov, Elena Y. Pivova, Vladimir M. Balyshev, Alexey D. Sereda and Denis V. Kolbasov
Viruses 2023, 15(2), 430; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15020430 - 03 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1095
Abstract
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is an extremely genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous pathogen. Previously, we have demonstrated that experimental inoculation of pigs with an attenuated strain, Katanga-350 (genotype I, seroimmunotype I) (ASFV-Katanga-350), can induce protective immunity in 80% of European domestic pigs against [...] Read more.
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is an extremely genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous pathogen. Previously, we have demonstrated that experimental inoculation of pigs with an attenuated strain, Katanga-350 (genotype I, seroimmunotype I) (ASFV-Katanga-350), can induce protective immunity in 80% of European domestic pigs against the homologous virulent European strain Lisbon-57. At least 50% of the surviving pigs received protection from subsequent intramuscular infection with a heterologous virulent strain, Stavropol 01/08 (genotype II, seroimmunotype VIII) (ASFV-Stavropol 01/08). In this study, we assessed clinical signs, the levels of viremia, viral DNA, anti-ASFV antibodies and post-mortem changes caused by subsequent intramuscular injection with ASFV-Katanga-350 and heterologous ASFV-Stavropol 01/08. Inoculation of pigs with the ASFV-Katanga-350 did not protect animals from the disease in the case of the subsequent challenged ASFV-Stavropol 01/08. However, 40% of pigs were protected from death. Moreover, the surviving animals showed no pathomorphological changes or the presence of an infectious virus in the organs after euthanasia at 35 days post challenging. The ability/inability of attenuated strains to form a certain level of protection against heterologous isolates needs a theoretical background and experimental confirmation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Swine Fever Virus: Infection and Immunity)
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19 pages, 3663 KiB  
Article
Immunobiological Characteristics of the Attenuated African Swine Fever Virus Strain Katanga-350
by Alexey D. Sereda, Mikhail E. Vlasov, Galina S. Koltsova, Sergey Y. Morgunov, Dmitry A. Kudrjashov, Irina P. Sindryakova, Olga L. Kolbasova, Valentina M. Lyska, Andrei Y. Koltsov, Sergey P. Zhivoderov, Elena Y. Pivova, Vladimir M. Baluishev, Andrey E. Gogin and Denis V. Kolbasov
Viruses 2022, 14(8), 1630; https://doi.org/10.3390/v14081630 - 26 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1500
Abstract
The African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the cause of a recent pandemic that is threatening the global pig industry. The virus infects domestic and wild pigs and manifests with a variety of clinical symptoms, depending on the strain. No commercial vaccine is [...] Read more.
The African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the cause of a recent pandemic that is threatening the global pig industry. The virus infects domestic and wild pigs and manifests with a variety of clinical symptoms, depending on the strain. No commercial vaccine is currently available to protect animals from this virus, but some attenuated and recombinant live vaccine candidates might be effective against the disease. This article describes the immunobiological characteristics of one such candidate—the laboratory-attenuated ASFV strain, Katanga-350—which belongs to genotype I. In this study, we assessed clinical signs and post-mortem changes, the levels of viremia and the presence of viral DNA caused by injection of ASF virus strains Katanga-350, Lisbon-57, and Stavropol 08/01. Intramuscular injection of this strain protected 80% of pigs from a virulent strain of the same genotype and seroimmunotype (Lisbon-57). At least 50% of the surviving pigs received protection from subsequent intramuscular infection with a heterologous (genotype II, seroimmunotype VIII) virulent strain (Stavropol 08/01). Virus-specific antibodies were detectable in serum and saliva samples between 8–78 days after the first inoculation of the Katanga-350 strain (the observational period). The results suggested that this strain could serve as a basis for the development of a recombinant vaccine against ASF viruses belonging to seroimmunotype I. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Swine Fever Virus: Infection and Immunity)
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Review

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34 pages, 555 KiB  
Review
African Swine Fever Virus Infection and Cytokine Response In Vivo: An Update
by Giulia Franzoni, Miriam Pedrera and Pedro J. Sánchez-Cordón
Viruses 2023, 15(1), 233; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15010233 - 14 Jan 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3627
Abstract
African swine fever (ASF) is a hemorrhagic viral disease of domestic pigs and wild suids (all Sus scrofa) caused by the ASF virus (ASFV). The disease is spreading worldwide without control, threatening pig production due to the absence of licensed vaccine or [...] Read more.
African swine fever (ASF) is a hemorrhagic viral disease of domestic pigs and wild suids (all Sus scrofa) caused by the ASF virus (ASFV). The disease is spreading worldwide without control, threatening pig production due to the absence of licensed vaccine or commercially available treatments. A thorough understanding of the immunopathogenic mechanisms behind ASFV infection is required to better fight the disease. Cytokines are small, non-structural proteins, which play a crucial role in many aspects of the immune responses to viruses, including ASFV. Infection with virulent ASFV isolates often results in exacerbated immune responses, with increased levels of serum pro-inflammatory interleukins (IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6), TNF and chemokines (CCL2, CCL5, CXCL10). Increased levels of IL-1, IL-6 and TNF are often detected in several tissues during acute ASFV infections and associated with lymphoid depletion, hemorrhages and oedemas. IL-1Ra is frequently released during ASFV infection to block further IL-1 activity, with its implication in ASFV immunopathology having been suggested. Increased levels of IFN-α and of the anti-inflammatory IL-10 seem to be negatively correlated with animal survival, whereas some correlation between virus-specific IFN-γ-producing cells and protection has been suggested in different studies where different vaccine candidates were tested, although future works should elucidate whether IFN-γ release by specific cell types is related to protection or disease development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Swine Fever Virus: Infection and Immunity)
32 pages, 422 KiB  
Review
African Swine Fever Modified Live Vaccine Candidates: Transitioning from Discovery to Product Development through Harmonized Standards and Guidelines
by David A. Brake
Viruses 2022, 14(12), 2619; https://doi.org/10.3390/v14122619 - 24 Nov 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2746
Abstract
The recent centennial anniversary of R.E. Montgomery’s seminal published description of “a form of swine fever” disease transmitted from wild African pigs to European domestic pigs is a call to action to accelerate African Swine Fever (ASF) vaccine research and development. ASF modified [...] Read more.
The recent centennial anniversary of R.E. Montgomery’s seminal published description of “a form of swine fever” disease transmitted from wild African pigs to European domestic pigs is a call to action to accelerate African Swine Fever (ASF) vaccine research and development. ASF modified live virus (MLV) first-generation gene deleted vaccine candidates currently offer the most promise to meet international and national guidelines and regulatory requirements for veterinary product licensure and market authorization. A major, rate-limiting impediment to the acceleration of current as well as future vaccine candidates into regulatory development is the absence of internationally harmonized standards for assessing vaccine purity, potency, safety, and efficacy. This review summarizes the asymmetrical landscape of peer-reviewed published literature on ASF MLV vaccine approaches and lead candidates, primarily studied to date in the research laboratory in proof-of-concept or early feasibility clinical safety and efficacy studies. Initial recommendations are offered toward eventual consensus of international harmonized guidelines and standards for ASF MLV vaccine purity, potency, safety, and efficacy. To help ensure the successful regulatory development and approval of ASF MLV first generation vaccines by national regulatory associated government agencies, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) establishment and publication of harmonized international guidelines is paramount. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue African Swine Fever Virus: Infection and Immunity)
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