Equine Arteritis Virus in Monocytic Cells Suppresses Differentiation and Function of Dendritic Cells

Equine viral arteritis is an infectious disease of equids caused by equine arteritis virus (EAV), an RNA virus of the family Arteriviridae. Dendritic cells (DC) are important modulators of the immune response with the ability to present antigen to naïve T cells and can be generated in vitro from monocytes (MoDC). DC are important targets for many viruses and this interaction is crucial for the establishment—or rather not—of an anti-viral immunity. Little is known of the effect EAV has on host immune cells, particularly DC. To study the interaction of eqDC with EAV in vitro, an optimized eqMoDC system was used, which was established in a previous study. MoDC were infected with strains of different genotypes and pathogenicity. Virus replication was determined through titration and qPCR. The effect of the virus on morphology, phenotype and function of cells was assessed using light microscopy, flow cytometry and in vitro assays. This study confirms that EAV replicates in monocytes and MoDC. The replication was most efficient in mature MoDC, but variable between strains. Only the virulent strain caused a significant down-regulation of certain proteins such as CD14 and CD163 on monocytes and of CD83 on mature MoDC. Functional studies conducted after infection showed that EAV inhibited the endocytic and phagocytic capacity of Mo and mature MoDC with minimal effect on immature MoDC. Infected MoDC showed a reduced ability to stimulate T cells. Ultimately, EAV replication resulted in an apoptosis-mediated cell death. Thus, EAV evades the host anti-viral immunity both by inhibition of antigen presentation early after infection and through killing infected DC during replication.