Baculovirus up-regulates antiviral systems and induces protection against infectious bronchitis virus challenge in neonatal chicken.

In this study, the Antheraea pernyi nuclear polyhedrosis virus (ApNPV), a member of the baculovirus family, is evaluated for its stimulation of chicken peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and macrophage cell line HD 11 in vitro, and protection against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) in neonatal chickens in vivo. This study showed that ApNPV significantly enhanced inflammatory cytokine mRNA expression in chicken PBMC and HD 11 cells through the clathrin-dependent endocytic and endosomal maturation pathway, and up-regulated nitric oxide production in HD 11 cells. Furthermore, it was identified that budded virus (BV) can induce antiviral effects in HD 11 cells contrary to occlusion-derived virus (ODV). These results indicate that immunostimulatory BV of ApNPV can stimulate the innate immune activities and enhance the resistance to infectious virus of neonatal chickens.