Impact on antibody responses of B-cell-restricted transgenic expression of a viral gene inhibiting activation of NF-κB and NFAT

Impact on antibody responses of B-cell-restricted transgenic expression of a viral gene inhibiting activation of NF-κB and NFAT

Archives of Virology, April 2015

25864175

Sílvia Cristina de Paiva e Almeida, Vivian Leite de Oliveira, Robert Michael Evans Parkhouse

In this work, we have assessed the impact in vivo of the evasion gene A238L of African swine fever virus, an inhibitor of both NF-κB- and NFAT-mediated transcription. The A238L gene was selectively expressed in mouse B lymphocytes using the promoter and enhancer sequences of the mouse Ig μ heavy chain. The IgM primary and IgG2b secondary serological responses and the number of splenic germinal centres in response to the TD antigens DNP-keyhole limpet hemocyanin and sheep red blood cells, respectively, were both lower in the transgenic mice, whereas the response to the TI type-1 and type-2 antigens DNP-Ficoll and DNP-LPS, respectively, were normal, except for the increased levels of IgG3 at day 14 in the DNP-LPS-immunized mice. Thus, it appears that neither p65 (NF-κB) nor NFAT is essential for B-cell development but, in a manner that is still unclear, may be relevant for their function.