How does the body respond to PRRSV? (Immune response to PRRSV)

摘要

As demonstrated by Meier et al. (20), there is a significant delay in the establishment of a seemingly protective immune response against PRRSV in infected pigs. The appearance of neutralizing antibodies as well as the development of a significant level of PRRSV-specific T cell memory are delayed in PPRSV-infected animals. Our most current experiments clearly indicate that, under in vivo conditions, the PRRSV-neutralizing antibodies have a significant role in protective immunity against PRRSV. Thus,if the production of neutralizing antibodies can be modulated to correct their tardiness and meager concentrations, they can be a major factor in the control of the infection. Likewise, the solid levels of T-cell reactivity ultimately attained by convalescent animals upon an extended period of time (20) strongly suggest that T cells, (represented by gamma-interferon producing cells), should also correlate with protective immunity. Identifying the basis for this significant delay observed in the establishment of protective immunity upon PRRSV infection of pig is the next major challenge waiting for elucidation.