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. 1997 Jun;71(6):4857–4861. doi: 10.1128/jvi.71.6.4857-4861.1997

A homolog of interleukin-10 is encoded by the poxvirus orf virus.

S B Fleming 1, C A McCaughan 1, A E Andrews 1, A D Nash 1, A A Mercer 1
PMCID: PMC191714  PMID: 9151886

Abstract

A gene encoding a polypeptide with homology to interleukin-10 (IL-10) has been discovered in the genome of orf virus (OV) strain NZ2, a parapoxvirus that infects sheep, goats, and humans. The predicted polypeptide sequence shows high levels of amino acid identity to IL-10 of sheep (80%), cattle (75%), humans (67%), and mice (64%), as well as IL-10-like proteins of Epstein-Barr virus (63%) and equine herpesvirus (67%). The C-terminal region, comprising two-thirds of the OV protein, is identical to ovine IL-10, which suggests that this gene has been captured from its host sheep during the evolution of OV. The IL-10-like gene is transcribed early. Conditioned medium from COS cells transfected with a eukaryotic expression vector containing the OV IL-10-like gene showed the same biological activity as ovine IL-10 in a murine thymocyte proliferation assay. OV IL-10 is likely to be important in immune evasion by OV, since IL-10 is a multifunctional cytokine that has inhibitory effects on nonspecific immunity and Th1 effector function.

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Selected References

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