Abstract
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large DNA virus that replicates predominantly in the cell cytoplasm and is the only member of the Asfarviridae family. The virus causes an acute haemorrhagic fever, African swine fever (ASF), in domestic pigs and wild boar resulting in the death of most infected animals. Apoptosis is induced at an early stage during virus entry or uncoating. However, ASFV encodes anti-apoptotic proteins which facilitate production of progeny virions. These anti-apoptotic proteins include A179L, a Bcl-2 family member; A224L, an inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAP) family member; EP153R a C-type lectin; and DP71L. The latter acts by inhibiting activation of the stress activated pro-apoptotic pathways pro-apoptotic pathways. The mechanisms by which these proteins act is summarised. ASF disease is characterised by massive apoptosis of uninfected lymphocytes which reduces the effectiveness of the immune response, contributing to virus pathogenesis. Mechanisms by which this apoptosis is induced are discussed.
Highlights
Introduction to African Swine Fever VirusAfrican swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large double-stranded DNA virus that replicates predominantly in the cell cytoplasm
Gómez del Moral et al [67] demonstrated that TNFα containing supernatants from macrophage cultures infected with the ASFV virulent isolate Spain-75 induced apoptosis in uninfected lymphocytes
An increase of macrophage counts in different areas of lymphoid organs was observed that coincided with the appearance of infected cells, mainly macrophages, and preceded massive lymphocyte apoptosis and lymphoid depletion typically associated with lethal forms of ASF
Summary
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large double-stranded DNA virus that replicates predominantly in the cell cytoplasm. The disease has a high socio-economic impact upon affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Sardinia, Russia and Eastern Europe. Since it spread to Georgia in 2007, ASF has extended through the. Several large DNA viruses that infect amoeba, including Faustovirus, Kaumoebavirus and Pacmanvirus, are distantly related to ASFV and share about 30 conserved genes. These have genomes of approximately 400 kbp, considerably larger in comparison to the ASFV genome of 170 to 193 kbp [5,6,7].
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