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Viruses
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Animal Herpesvirus 2025
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Animal Herpesvirus 2025

A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Viruses".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 875

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Shafiqul Chowdhury

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Guest Editor
Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
Interests: veterinary virology, graduate level advanced virology; bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1); equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) pathogenesis; genetically engineered vaccines; vaccine vector
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Herpesviruses are ubiquitous pathogens and excellent managers of the host immune response. They can successfully survive in the host, as in the case of alphaherpesviruses. Therefore, herpesviruses have, for many years, co-evolved with the host species. They might have originated from a common ancestor of mammals and birds, and learned to adapt to their respective hosts using various survival strategies over time. However, herpesviruses of different host species tend to exhibit an initial diversion or counteraction against the innate immune response and later evade the adaptive immune response of the host. Therefore, the pathogenesis of animal herpesviruses involves a delicate, yet dynamic, interplay between the host and the virus. Since herpesviruses comprise a virome and may remain in their respective animal hosts for life, they can also affect the host’s susceptibility to other infections and disease-producing agents.

This Special Issue welcomes the submission of original research papers and review articles that address the entire spectrum of herpesvirus–host interactions in different animal species, from the perspective of both the virus and host. We also welcome articles that present strategies for the future development of vaccines, consider the complexity of host-virus interactions, and evaluate the complications that result from dual infections, including herpesvirus-mediated disease complexes in different animal host species.

Prof. Dr. Shafiqul Chowdhury
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • herpesviruses
  • innate immune responses
  • host adaptive immune responses
  • herpesvirus-host
  • interactions
  • susceptibility

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3117 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Celastrol Antiviral Activity Against Equid Alphaherpesvirus Type 8 Infection
by Yue Yu, Jiayu Wang, Lian Ruan, Li Chen, Muhammad Zahoor Khan, Anrong You, Changfa Wang, Liangliang Li, Huiying Ren, Tongtong Wang and Wenhua Liu
Viruses 2025, 17(3), 347; https://doi.org/10.3390/v17030347 - 28 Feb 2025
Viewed by 346
Abstract
Equid alphaherpesvirus type 8 (EHV-8) is a contagious pathogen that causes reproductive disorders, respiratory diseases, and viral encephalitis in equids, resulting in significant economic losses for the global horse and donkey industries. Currently, there are no approved antiviral drugs or vaccines available for [...] Read more.
Equid alphaherpesvirus type 8 (EHV-8) is a contagious pathogen that causes reproductive disorders, respiratory diseases, and viral encephalitis in equids, resulting in significant economic losses for the global horse and donkey industries. Currently, there are no approved antiviral drugs or vaccines available for EHV-8 control. In this study, we investigated the antiviral efficacy of celastrol against EHV-8 both in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrated that celastrol significantly inhibited EHV-8 infection in Rabbit kidney (RK-13) and equine dermal cells (NBL-6) in a dose-dependent manner. Mechanistic studies revealed that celastrol interfered with viral replication at multiple stages of the infection cycle. Furthermore, we found that celastrol induced an antiviral interferon response through activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway. Importantly, celastrol treatment significantly reduced EHV-8 replication and ameliorated lung pathology in a mouse model. These findings suggest that celastrol may represent a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of EHV-8 infections. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animal Herpesvirus 2025)
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15 pages, 2368 KiB  
Article
A Novel BoHV-1-Vectored Subunit RVFV Vaccine Induces a Robust Humoral and Cell-Mediated Immune Response Against Rift Valley Fever in Sheep
by Selvaraj Pavulraj, Rhett W. Stout and Shafiqul I. Chowdhury
Viruses 2025, 17(3), 304; https://doi.org/10.3390/v17030304 - 23 Feb 2025
Viewed by 386
Abstract
Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a vector-borne zoonotic viral disease that causes abortion storms, fetal malformations, and neonatal mortality in livestock ruminants. In humans, RVF can lead to hemorrhagic fever, encephalitis, retinitis, or blindness, and about 1% of patients die. Since there are [...] Read more.
Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a vector-borne zoonotic viral disease that causes abortion storms, fetal malformations, and neonatal mortality in livestock ruminants. In humans, RVF can lead to hemorrhagic fever, encephalitis, retinitis, or blindness, and about 1% of patients die. Since there are no registered vaccines for human use, developing RVF vaccines for use in animals is crucial to protect animals and prevent the spread of the virus from infecting humans. We recently developed a live bovine herpesvirus type 1 quadruple gene-mutant vector (BoHV-1qmv) that lacks virulence and immunosuppressive properties. Further, we engineered a BoHV-1qmv-vectored subunit Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) vaccine (BoHV-1qmv Sub-RVFV) for cattle, in which a chimeric polyprotein coding for the RVFV Gc, Gn, and bovine granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GMCSF) proteins is fused but cleaved proteolytically in infected cells into individual membrane-anchored Gc and secreted Gn-GMCSF proteins. Calves vaccinated with the BoHV-1qmv Sub-RVFV vaccine generated moderate levels of RVFV-specific serum-neutralizing (SN) antibodies and cellular immune responses. In the current study, we repurposed the BoHV-1qmv Sub-RVFV for sheep by replacing the RVFV Gc and Gn ORF sequences codon-optimized for bovines with the corresponding ovine-codon-optimized sequences and by fusing the sheep GM-CSF ORF sequences with the Gn ORF sequence. A combined primary intranasal-plus-subcutaneous primary immunization induced a moderate level of BoHV-1 (vector)- and vaccine strain MP12-specific SN antibodies and MP-12-specific cellular immune responses. Notably, an intranasal booster vaccination after 29 days triggered a rapid (within 7 days) rise in MP-12-specific SN antibody titers. Therefore, the BoHV-1qmv-vectored subunit RVFV vaccine is safe and highly immunogenic in sheep and can potentially be an efficient subunit vaccine for sheep against RVFV. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animal Herpesvirus 2025)
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