The Interaction between Pathogens and the Chicken Innate Immune System

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Immunological Responses and Immune Defense Mechanisms".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 14078

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Cell Biology and Immunology Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Interests: avian immunology; host-pathogen interactions; natural killer cells; immunomodulation
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Guest Editor
Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Division of Infectious Diseases & Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands
Interests: immunology; cell biology; vaccines; host pathogen interactions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The innate immune system is the first line of defense against pathogens, which acts in a rapid and non-specific way. It consists of mucosal barriers, soluble factors such as antimicrobial peptides, and complement factors as well as a large cellular compartments including granulocytes, monocytes, macrophages, natural killer cells, and dendritic cells. This combination of antimicrobial molecules and innate immune cells results in most cases in protection against pathogens. When pathogens are not cleared by these early defense mechanisms, the initial encounter between the innate immune system and pathogens also determines the subsequent actions of the adaptive immune system.

Activation of the adaptive immune system results in long-term immunological memory, which is pathogen-specific. Recently, it has been shown that chicken innate immune cells are also able to develop immunological memory, a concept described as trained innate immunity which is not pathogen-specific, which may lead to enhanced protection against multiple pathogens.

Compared to knowledge of mammalian immune systems, chicken immunology is still in its infancy. However, the completion of the chicken genome and the development of techniques such as transcriptomics, proteomics, advanced microscopy, and multicolor flow cytometry rapidly increase our understanding of the chicken immune system in health and disease.

The focus of this Special Issue will be the interaction between pathogens and the chicken innate immune system and how this will affect the outcome of this interaction for either pathogen or host. Special focus will be on the mechanism by which pathogens either activate or evade the different components of the innate immune system.

This knowledge will be important for the design of effective vaccines and other intervention strategies that enhance the responsiveness of the chicken innate immune system, with the ultimate goal of making chickens more resistant to infectious diseases.

Dr. Christine Jansen
Dr. Robin van den Biggelaar
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • chicken immunology
  • innate
  • pathogens
  • natural killer cells
  • macrophages
  • antimicrobial peptides

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 1728 KiB  
Article
The Role of Dendritic Cells in the Host Response to Marek’s Disease Virus (MDV) as Shown by Transcriptomic Analysis of Susceptible and Resistant Birds
by Pankaj Chakraborty, Richard I. Kuo, Zhou Wu, Katrina M. Morris, Bernadette M. Dutia, Pete Kaiser and Jacqueline Smith
Pathogens 2022, 11(11), 1340; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11111340 - 13 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1924
Abstract
Despite the successful control of highly contagious tumorigenic Marek’s disease (MD) by vaccination, a continuous increase in MD virus (MDV) virulence over recent decades has put emphasis on the development of more MD-resistant chickens. The cell types and genes involved in resistance therefore [...] Read more.
Despite the successful control of highly contagious tumorigenic Marek’s disease (MD) by vaccination, a continuous increase in MD virus (MDV) virulence over recent decades has put emphasis on the development of more MD-resistant chickens. The cell types and genes involved in resistance therefore need to be recognized. The virus is primarily lymphotropic, but research should also focus on innate immunity, as innate immune cells are among the first to encounter MDV. Our previous study on MDV–macrophage interaction revealed significant differences between MHC-congenic lines 61 (MD-resistant) and 72 (MD-susceptible). To investigate the role of dendritic cells (DCs) in MD resistance, bone-marrow-derived DCs from these lines were infected with MDV in vitro. They were then characterized by cell sorting, and the respective transcriptomes analysed by RNA-seq. The differential expression (DE) of genes revealed a strong immune activation in DCs of the susceptible line, although an inherent immune supremacy was shown by the resistant line, including a significant expression of tumour-suppressor miRNA, gga-mir-124a, in line 61 control birds. Enrichment analysis of DE genes revealed high expression of an oncogenic transcription factor, AP-1, in the susceptible line following MDV challenge. This research highlights genes and pathways that may play a role in DCs in determining resistance or susceptibility to MDV infection. Full article
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15 pages, 2152 KiB  
Article
Avian Macrophage Responses to Virulent and Avirulent Clostridium perfringens
by Raveendra R. Kulkarni, Carissa Gaghan and Javid Mohammed
Pathogens 2022, 11(1), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11010100 - 15 Jan 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2354
Abstract
The present study evaluated the avian macrophage responses against Clostridium perfringens that varied in their ability to cause necrotic enteritis in chickens. Strains CP5 (avirulent-netB+), CP1 (virulent-netB+), and CP26 (highly virulent-netB+tpeL+) were used to evaluate [...] Read more.
The present study evaluated the avian macrophage responses against Clostridium perfringens that varied in their ability to cause necrotic enteritis in chickens. Strains CP5 (avirulent-netB+), CP1 (virulent-netB+), and CP26 (highly virulent-netB+tpeL+) were used to evaluate their effect on macrophages (MQ-NCSU cells) and primary splenic and cecal tonsil mononuclear cells. The bacilli (whole cells) or their secretory products from all three strains induced a significant increase in the macrophage transcription of Toll-like receptor (TLR)21, TLR2, interleukin (IL)-1β, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and CD80 genes as well as their nitric oxide (NO) production and major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-II surface expression compared to an unstimulated control. The CP1 and CP26-induced expression of interferon (IFN)γ, IL-6, CD40 genes, MHC-II upregulation, and NO production was significantly higher than that of CP5 and control groups. Furthermore, splenocytes and cecal tonsillocytes stimulated with bacilli or secretory products from all the strains showed a significant increase in the frequency of macrophages, their surface expression of MHC-II and NO production, while CP26-induced responses were significantly higher for the rest of the groups. In summary, macrophage interaction with C. perfringens can lead to cellular activation and, the ability of this pathogen to induce macrophage responses may depend on its level of virulence. Full article
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Review

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20 pages, 1614 KiB  
Review
The Interplay between Salmonella and Intestinal Innate Immune Cells in Chickens
by Adil Ijaz, Edwin J. A. Veldhuizen, Femke Broere, Victor P. M. G. Rutten and Christine A. Jansen
Pathogens 2021, 10(11), 1512; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10111512 - 19 Nov 2021
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 8494
Abstract
Salmonellosis is a common infection in poultry, which results in huge economic losses in the poultry industry. At the same time, Salmonella infections are a threat to public health, since contaminated poultry products can lead to zoonotic infections. Antibiotics as feed additives have [...] Read more.
Salmonellosis is a common infection in poultry, which results in huge economic losses in the poultry industry. At the same time, Salmonella infections are a threat to public health, since contaminated poultry products can lead to zoonotic infections. Antibiotics as feed additives have proven to be an effective prophylactic option to control Salmonella infections, but due to resistance issues in humans and animals, the use of antimicrobials in food animals has been banned in Europe. Hence, there is an urgent need to look for alternative strategies that can protect poultry against Salmonella infections. One such alternative could be to strengthen the innate immune system in young chickens in order to prevent early life infections. This can be achieved by administration of immune modulating molecules that target innate immune cells, for example via feed, or by in-ovo applications. We aimed to review the innate immune system in the chicken intestine; the main site of Salmonella entrance, and its responsiveness to Salmonella infection. Identifying the most important players in the innate immune response in the intestine is a first step in designing targeted approaches for immune modulation. Full article
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