Development of control measures for the gammaherpesviral disease of cattle known as sheep-associated malignant catarrhal fever (SA-MCF) has been hampered by a lack of accurate diagnostic tests either for the causative virus or for antibody against that virus. A recently developed competitive-inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (CI-ELISA) for the detection of antibody to malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) virus (MCFV) in ruminants based on a monoclonal antibody to a widely conserved epitope of MCFV (H. Li, D. T.

Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is a severe, usually fatal, acute systemic disease syndrome of certain domestic and wild ruminants caused by members of the family Gammaherpesvirinae. Two distinct but closely related viruses cause clinically indistinguishable syndromes: one that is indigenous to the wildebeest and the other that apparently is indigenous to domestic sheep. Neither the pathogenesis nor the epidemiology of sheep-associated MCF (SA-MCF) is understood, primarily because of a lack of adequate detection methods for the etiologic agent or antibody against it. No acceptably documented isolates of SA-MCF virus have been reported, and existing antibody assays suffer from significant cross-reactivity with other viruses. As a basis for a specific serologic assay, an attempt was made to identify an epitope conserved among all isolates of MCF viruses, by using a monoclonal antibody (MAb) produced against a previously reported U.S. isolate of MCF virus. A MAb (15-A) which bound a conserved epitope present on all four isolates of MCF virus examined was found. MAb 15-A did not react with eight common sheep and goat viruses or five common bovine viruses. Immunoprecipitation revealed that the 15-A epitope was located on the viral glycoprotein complex, with molecular masses of 115, 110, 105, 78, and 45 kDa. Sera from experimentally and naturally infected animals which yielded a similar glycoprotein complex immunoprecipitation pattern competed with MAb 15-A for its epitope. A competitive inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on MAb 15-A was therefore developed. The assay detected antibody in inapparently infected sheep and in cattle, deer, and bison with clinical MCF. Of the 149 serum samples from sheep associated with MCF outbreaks, 88 (55%) were seropositive by competitive inhibition ELISA.

T cell receptor (TCR)‐induced activation of protein kinase C (PKC) has long been known to be critical for regulation of granule exocytosis mediated cytotoxicity in CD8+ T cells. However, the mechanism by which PKC regulates this effector function is not clear. In addition, it is not known which PKC family members are involved in the regulation of this process. By combining the use of pharmacological inhibitors and mice with targeted gene deletions, we showed that Protein Kinase C □elta is required for granule exocytosis mediated lytic function in mouse CD8+T cells. We studied lysosomal/lytic granule movements in CD8+ T cells responding to target cell recognition by confocal microscopy and live imaging and demonstrated that PKC □elta regulates TCR induced lytic granule polarization. In summary, our studies identified Protein Kinase C □elta, a member of the family of diacylglycerol dependent, calcium independent PKC isoforms, as a novel regulator of TCR mediated lytic granule release in mouse CD8+CTL. This work was supported by the NIH grants RO1AI48837 and RO1AI41573 to SV and by NIH, NCI F32CA101449‐02 and Research Advisory Council grant to SR.

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