| Participating
Faculty
Robert
Mealey
Assistant
Professor
Department of Veterinary Microbiology & Pathology
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-7040
Ph.D.,
2001
Veterinary Medicine
Washington State University
D.V.M.,
1990
Veterinary
Med & Biomedical Sciences
Colorado
State University
Phone:
509-335-6672
Fax: 509-335-8529
Email: rhm@vetmed.wsu.edu
Research
Interests: Equine infectious
desease and immunology.
Research
Summary: My primary research
interests include equine infectious diseases and immunology, with
special emphasis on the immune control of equine infectious anemia
virus (EIAV). Equine infectious anemia virus is a lentivirus of
horses that is very similar to the human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV), the cause of AIDS in people. Equine infectious anemia virus
has a world-wide distribution, and horses that become infected are
infected for life. Most infected horses have recurrent episodes
of clinical disease during the first year, but they eventually control
the infection and become lifelong inapparent carriers of the virus
without further disease. Collaborative work has shown that virus-specific
immune responses are responsible for this control of EIAV replication.
Thus, EIAV is a powerful model for studying the immune control of
lentiviruses, and information gained may help better understand
mechanisms of immune control of related lentiviruses like HIV. Cytotoxic
T lymphocytes (CTL), which kill virus-infected cells, are a critical
component of this virus-specific immune response. Neutralizing antibodies,
which can block infection of cells, are also critical. My research
is focused on defining the correlates of CTL and neutralizing antibody-mediated
protection against EIAV infection. The objectives of current work
are to identify the viral proteins that must be recognized by protective
CTL, determine the functional characteristics of protective CTL,
and to determine the number and type of viral envelope proteins
that must be recognized by neutralizing antibodies in order to be
protective. Information gained thus far is being used to construct
DNA-based vaccines designed to induce EIAV-specific CTL in outbred
horses. Eventually, protective neutralizing antibody epitopes will
be incorporated into these vaccines. In addition to benefiting the
horse, the results of these studies may also have implications for
protecting people against AIDS.
Representative
Publications:
Mealey RH,
Lee JH, Leib SR, Littke MH, McGuire TC. A single amino acid difference
within the a-2
domain of two naturally occurring equine MHC class I molecules alters
the recognition of Gag and Rev epitopes by equine infectious anemia
virus-specific CTL. J Immunology 2006; 177:7377-7390.
Chung C, Mealey RH, McGuire TC. Evaluation of high functional avidity
CTL to Gag epitope clusters in EIAV carrier horses. Virology 2005;
342:228-239.
Mealey RH, Sharif A, Ellis SA, Littke MH, Leib SR, McGuire TC. Early
detection of dominant Env-specific and subdominant Gag-specific
CD8+ lymphocytes in equine infectious anemia virus-infected horses
using major histocompatibility complex class I/peptide tetrameric
complexes. Virology 2005; 339:110-126.
Fraser DG, Leib SR, Zhang B, Mealey RH, Brown WC, McGuire TC. Lymphocyte
proliferation responses induced to broadly reactive Th peptides
did not protect against EIAV challenge. Clinical and Diagnostic
Laboratory Immunology 2005; 12:983-993.
Patton KM, McGuire TC, Hines MT, Mealey RH, Hines SA. Rhodococcus
equi-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in immune horses and development
in asymptomatic foals. Infection and Immunity 2005; 73:2083-2093.
Chung C, Mealey RH, McGuire TC. CTL from EIAV carrier horses with
diverse MHC class I alleles recognize epitope clusters in Gag matrix
and capsid proteins. Virology 2004; 327:144-154.
Mealey RH, Leib SR, Pownder SL, McGuire TC. Adaptive immunity is
the primary force driving selection of equine infectious anemia
virus envelope SU variants during acute infection. J Virology 2004;
78:9295-9305.
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