Annexin A2 (ANXA2) is a multifunctional calcium- and phospholipid-binding protein that plays an important role in various cells. During pathogen infections, ANXA2 modulates the nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) and cell apoptosis signaling pathways and guides the chemotaxis of inflammatory cells toward inflammation sites, thereby protecting the host organism through the modulation of the inflammatory response. In addition, ANXA2 can regulate immune responses, and in certain pathogen infections, it can interact with pathogen proteins to facilitate their invasion and proliferation. This review provides an overview of the research progress on how ANXA2 regulates pathogen infections.

Orf (ORF) is an acute disease caused by the Orf virus (ORFV), and poses a certain threat to animal and human health. Live attenuated vaccines play an important role in the prevention and control of ORF. The effectiveness of the live attenuated Orf virus vaccine is influenced by several factors, including the genomic match between the vaccine strain and circulating epidemic strains. Genomic differences between an ORFV epidemic strain (ORFV-2W) and a vaccine strain (ORFV-1V) were identified in this study via analysis of multiple sequence alignments, phylogenetic trees, and single nucleotide polymorphisms. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that ORFV-2W and ORFV-1V were closely related, with a whole genome homology of 99.8%. Furthermore, a deletion in the non-coding region at the end of the whole genome of ORFV-1V was detected. Such non-essential genes in the terminal regions are usually unnecessary for virus replication but may play important roles in pathogenicity, host and tissue tropism. Single nucleotide polymorphism analysis identified three missense mutations in ORF067, ORF072, and the terminal non-coding region of ORFV-1V. Moreover, a frameshift mutation in ORF102 of ORFV-1V was detected. Mutations in individual genes and deletion of terminal non-coding regions may be related to the attenuation of the vaccine strain. These results provide useful context for improving ORFV vaccines.