Journal of Veterinary Science & Medicine

Research Article

Immunopathology in Lungs after Intranasal Challenge with Live Virus in EHV-1 Recovered Murine Model of EHV-1 Infection: Lessons Learned From Unexpected Findings

Awan AR1,2,3, Tulp OL1,3 and Field HJ

1University of Health and Humanities, Tortola, British Virgin Islands & Life member, Darwin college, University of Cambridge, UK
2Department of Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road University of Cambridge, UK
3University of Health and Humanities, Virgin Islands & University of Science, Arts and Technology, Monserrat, BWI
*Address for correspondence: Awan AR, University of Health and Humanities, Tortola, British Virgin Islands & Life member, Darwin college, University of Cambridge, UK; E-mail: Aftab.Awan@cantab.net
Submission: 27 May, 2022
Accepted: 28 June, 2022
Published: 30 June, 2022
Copyright: © 2022 Awan AR, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Equine herpes virus (EHV-1) causes wide-spread infection among horses worldwide. Virus causes respiratory disease, abortion, neonatal death, paresis, retinopathy, viramea and becomes latent. Horses show transient immunity after EHV-1 infection, where immune responses have been observed to decline after a few months of infection and recovered horses are prone to EHV-1 reinfection. Due to transient immune responses, effective and lasting vaccination to EHV-1 remains a challenge. In an HSV murine model, mice provides solid protection and recovered mice could not be re-infected. In this study we infected mice with EHV-1 intra nasally and after five months, mice were re-infected with EHV-1 along with the previously placebo control. It was expected that mice that had recovered would show some level of protection, but in fact they showed unexpectedly severe clinical signs and more deaths on reinfection. Reinfected mice showed severe breathing difficulties, abdominal breathing, weight loss and death compared to mice infected for the first time. The answers to the worst clinical signs came from post-mortem and histopathological findings. Lungs of challenged mice showed severe consolidation and profound infiltration of inflammatory cells such that the normal parenchyma and architecture of lungs were completely lost. The results of this study suggest that immunoreactive pathological mechanisms exists and should be considered in designing intranasal vaccine preparation for EHV-1 and possibly for other respiratory infections.