Infection, modulation and responses of antigen-presenting cells to African swine fever viruses

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is a devastating viral disease of domestic pigs and wild boar for which there is no vaccine available. The aetiological agent ASF virus (ASFV) has a predilection for cells of the myeloid lineage. Macrophages provide a first line defence against pathogens and are the main target of ASFV, thus several studies analysed their response to infection in terms of cytokine/chemokine expression and modulation of functionality. These studies have typically used macrophages differentiated in vitro from blood or bone marrow progenitors and few studies have focused on responses of polarized macrophages (M1, M2) or functional macrophage subsets isolated from different tissues. ASFV can also infect dendritic cells (DC), but regardless of their central role in the induction of adaptive immune responses, their role in ASFV infection was only partially analysed. Future studies on ASFV-DC interaction are needed, which should take into consideration the heterogeneity within this family, composed of different subsets whose phenotype is also organ specific. Other porcine immune cells such as γδ-T cells, NK cells and fibrocytes, can act as 'non-conventional' antigen-presenting cells (APCs). In particular, γδ-T cells from ASFV immune pigs were shown to present viral antigens to T cells, but no studies have further explored the interaction of ASFV with this cell type or other non-conventional APCs. In this review we will provide an overview of the interaction of APCs with ASFV, describing the differences between virulent and attenuated strains, and suggesting areas for possible future studies.

Keywords: APCs; ASFV; Cytokines; Dendritic cells; Macrophages.