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Title: THE ELR MOTIF IN VIL8 GENE OF THE MAREK'S DISEASE VIRUS IS ESSENTIAL FOR THE ANGIOGENESIS ACTIVITY

Author
item CUI, XIAOPING - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item Lee, Lucy
item REED, WILLIE - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item REDDY, SANJAY - TEXAS A & M

Submitted to: International Marek's Disease Symposium Abstracts and Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/14/2004
Publication Date: 7/14/2004
Citation: Cui, X., Lee, L.F., Reed, W., Reddy, S. 2004. The ELR motif in vIL8 gene of the Marek's disease virus is essential for the Angiogenesis activity [abstract]. International Marek's Disease Symposium Abstracts and Proceedings. Paper No. III-7.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Marek's disease virus (MDV) encodes a chemokine-like gene, vIL-8, in serotype 1 MDV. VIL8 is not essential for replication in cell culture but is critical for the in vivo replication of MDV in the lymphoid organs. MDV vIL-8 shares significant homology to cellular CXC chemokines such as IL-8 and GRO-Alpha, and is the only one found in Alpha-herpesvirus. The MDV vIL-8 lacks a conserved ELR motif comprising of Glu-Leu-Arg (ELR), instead, it has the amino acids of Asp-Lys-Arg (DKR). Published data on mutagenesis of ELR+ chemokine (e.g., IL-8) revealed the presence of the ELR motif correlated well with its function in inducing angiogenesis in tumor development. In this report we describe the pathogenesis and angiogenesis studies of the mutant virus rMd5/vIL8-ELR. The result shows that mutations from DKR to ELR did not significantly change the pathogenesis of MDV in chickens when compared with that of the parental virus rMd5. However, we found that the vIL8 protein secreted from the mutant virus rMd5/vIL8-ELR infected DEF cells induced significant vascularization of allantoic vessels in the chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. The importance of an angiogenic or angiostatic activity in the development of the MDV lymphoma will be discussed.