My primary research interests include equine infectious diseases and immunology, with special emphasis on the immune control of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV). This virus has a world-wide distribution, and horses that become infected with EIAV are infected for life. Most infected horses have recurrent episodes of clinical disease, but eventually control the infection to become lifelong inapparent carriers of the virus. Collaborative work has shown that virus-specific immune responses are responsible for controlling EIAV replication. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), which kill virus-infected cells, are a critical component of this virus-specific immune response, as are neutralizing antibodies. My research is focused on defining the correlates of CTL and neutralizing antibody-mediated protection against EIAV infection. Some of the objectives of current work are to identify the viral proteins that must be recognized by protective CTL, as well as to determine the functional characteristics of protective CTL. Information gained thus far is being used to construct DNA-based vaccines designed to induce EIAV-specific CTL in outbred horses. Once EIAV-specific CTL are induced by vaccination, it will be determined if the induced CTL result in protection. Current work also includes determining the breadth and specificity of protective neutralizing antibody responses. Since EIAV is a lentivirus, similar to the human immunodeficiency virus, the results of these studies may also have implications for protecting people against AIDS.

Publications

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