Out of Sight, but Not Out of Mind: Aspects of the Avian Oncogenic Herpesvirus, Marek’s Disease Virus

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Often tumors are eventually observed at poultry slaughter, leading to condemnation, not of zoonotic, but because of esthetic reasons. Most avian tumors are caused by infection with oncogenic viruses, where the most prominent is a herpesvirus, Marek’s disease virus (MDV). MDV-infections are economically important in the poultry industry as they cause immunosuppression, decreases in productivity and profitability and increased morbidity, mortality, and condemnation at slaughter. MDV was discovered about 50 years ago, and still its study is ongoing until now. This review is presenting the MDV biology, and protection by vaccination, but also topics that were less brought to wider knowledge, like the vaccine and virulent virus presence in feathers, and their use in assessing the efficacy of vaccines application in commercial settings. In addition, two relatively novel topics are reviewed, like the meq MDV oncogene and its recent implication in molecular epidemiology and MDV virulence determination, and second, the importance of native, three-dimensional conformational epitopes of the immunodominant glycoprotein B and the molecular recombination between DNA-DNA and DNA-RNA viruses. Our studies were particular, as they were originally describing how the native virion is activating the chicken immune response to create virus-neutralizing antibodies. The topic might shed light on items to be focused on in future searches for effective vaccines. ABSTRACT: Marek’s disease virus is an economically important avian herpesvirus that causes tumors and immunosuppression in chickens and turkeys. The virus, disease, and vaccines have been known for more than 50 years, but as knowledge gaps still exists, intensive research is still ongoing. The understanding of MDV complexity can provide scientific insight in topics that cannot be experimented in humans, providing a unique model that is dually useful for the benefit of the poultry industry and for studying general herpesvirology. The present review presents the following topics: the MDV biology, the vaccine’s and virulent virus’ peculiar presence in feathers, protection by vaccination. In addition, two relatively behind the scenes topics are reviewed; first, the meq MDV oncogene and its recent implication in molecular epidemiology and in the MDV virulence determination, and second, the functionality of conformational epitopes of the MDV immunodominant protein, glycoprotein B. Our studies were particular, as they were the only ones describing three-dimensional MDV gB oligomers. MDV gB (glycoprotein B) continuous and discontinuous epitopes were shown to possess distinctive neutralization activities. In contrast, the significance of oligomerization of the viral membrane proteins for the creation of discontinuous epitopes in other herpesviruses was explored extensively.