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Fatal Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infection of Two Young Asian Elephants

Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) can cause a devastating haemorrhagic disease in young Asian elephants worldwide. Here, we report the death of two young Asian elephants after suffering from acute haemorrhagic disease due to EEHV-1A infection. We detected widespread distribution of EEHV-1...

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Autores principales: Pavulraj, Selvaraj, Eschke, Kathrin, Prahl, Adriane, Flügger, Michael, Trimpert, Jakob, van den Doel, Petra B., Andreotti, Sandro, Kaessmeyer, Sabine, Osterrieder, Nikolaus, Azab, Walid
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843339/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31561506
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms7100396
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author Pavulraj, Selvaraj
Eschke, Kathrin
Prahl, Adriane
Flügger, Michael
Trimpert, Jakob
van den Doel, Petra B.
Andreotti, Sandro
Kaessmeyer, Sabine
Osterrieder, Nikolaus
Azab, Walid
author_facet Pavulraj, Selvaraj
Eschke, Kathrin
Prahl, Adriane
Flügger, Michael
Trimpert, Jakob
van den Doel, Petra B.
Andreotti, Sandro
Kaessmeyer, Sabine
Osterrieder, Nikolaus
Azab, Walid
author_sort Pavulraj, Selvaraj
collection PubMed
description Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) can cause a devastating haemorrhagic disease in young Asian elephants worldwide. Here, we report the death of two young Asian elephants after suffering from acute haemorrhagic disease due to EEHV-1A infection. We detected widespread distribution of EEHV-1A in various organs and tissues of the infected elephants. Enveloped viral particles accumulated within and around cytoplasmic electron-dense bodies in hepatic endothelial cells were detected. Attempts to isolate the virus on different cell cultures showed limited virus replication; however, late viral protein expression was detected in infected cells. We further showed that glycoprotein B (gB) of EEHV-1A possesses a conserved cleavage site Arg-X-Lys/Arg-Arg that is targeted by the cellular protease furin, similar to other members of the Herpesviridae. We have determined the complete 180 kb genome sequence of EEHV-1A isolated from the liver by next-generation sequencing and de novo assembly. As virus isolation in vitro has been unsuccessful and limited information is available regarding the function of viral proteins, we have attempted to take the initial steps in the development of suitable cell culture system and virus characterization. In addition, the complete genome sequence of an EEHV-1A in Europe will facilitate future studies on the epidemiology and diagnosis of EEHV infection in elephants.
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spelling pubmed-68433392019-11-25 Fatal Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infection of Two Young Asian Elephants Pavulraj, Selvaraj Eschke, Kathrin Prahl, Adriane Flügger, Michael Trimpert, Jakob van den Doel, Petra B. Andreotti, Sandro Kaessmeyer, Sabine Osterrieder, Nikolaus Azab, Walid Microorganisms Article Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) can cause a devastating haemorrhagic disease in young Asian elephants worldwide. Here, we report the death of two young Asian elephants after suffering from acute haemorrhagic disease due to EEHV-1A infection. We detected widespread distribution of EEHV-1A in various organs and tissues of the infected elephants. Enveloped viral particles accumulated within and around cytoplasmic electron-dense bodies in hepatic endothelial cells were detected. Attempts to isolate the virus on different cell cultures showed limited virus replication; however, late viral protein expression was detected in infected cells. We further showed that glycoprotein B (gB) of EEHV-1A possesses a conserved cleavage site Arg-X-Lys/Arg-Arg that is targeted by the cellular protease furin, similar to other members of the Herpesviridae. We have determined the complete 180 kb genome sequence of EEHV-1A isolated from the liver by next-generation sequencing and de novo assembly. As virus isolation in vitro has been unsuccessful and limited information is available regarding the function of viral proteins, we have attempted to take the initial steps in the development of suitable cell culture system and virus characterization. In addition, the complete genome sequence of an EEHV-1A in Europe will facilitate future studies on the epidemiology and diagnosis of EEHV infection in elephants. MDPI 2019-09-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6843339/ /pubmed/31561506 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms7100396 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Pavulraj, Selvaraj
Eschke, Kathrin
Prahl, Adriane
Flügger, Michael
Trimpert, Jakob
van den Doel, Petra B.
Andreotti, Sandro
Kaessmeyer, Sabine
Osterrieder, Nikolaus
Azab, Walid
Fatal Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infection of Two Young Asian Elephants
title Fatal Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infection of Two Young Asian Elephants
title_full Fatal Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infection of Two Young Asian Elephants
title_fullStr Fatal Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infection of Two Young Asian Elephants
title_full_unstemmed Fatal Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infection of Two Young Asian Elephants
title_short Fatal Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infection of Two Young Asian Elephants
title_sort fatal elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus infection of two young asian elephants
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843339/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31561506
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms7100396
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