Project description:The mechanisms responsible for the molecular pathogenesis of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) or low pathogenic avian influenza virus (LPAIV) in avian species remain poorly understood. Thus, global immune response of chickens infected with HPAIV H5N1 (A/duck/India/02CA10/2011) and LPAIV H9N2 (A/duck/India/249800/2010) viruses was studied using microarray to identify crucial host genetic components responsive to these infection. HPAIV H5N1 induced excessive mRNA expression of cytokines (IFNA, OASL, MX1, RSAD2, IFITM5, GBP 1, IL1B, IL18, IL22, IL13, IL12B, CCL4, CCL9, CCL10, CX3CL1 etc) in lung tissues. This excessive cytokine response (cytokine storms) may cause tissue damage and high mortality in chickens. In contrast, the expression levels of most of the cytokines remained unchanged in the lungs of LPAIV H9N2 virus infected chickens. This study indicated the relationship between host cytokines response and their roles in pathogenesis in chickens infected with HPAIVs.
Project description:The mechanisms responsible for the molecular pathogenesis of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) or low pathogenic avian influenza virus (LPAIV) in avian species remain poorly understood. Thus, global immune response of chickens infected with HPAIV H5N1 (A/duck/India/02CA10/2011) and LPAIV H9N2 (A/duck/India/249800/2010) viruses was studied using microarray to identify crucial host genetic components responsive to these infection. HPAIV H5N1 induced excessive mRNA expression of cytokines (IFNA, OASL, MX1, RSAD2, IFITM5, GBP 1, IL1B, IL18, IL22, IL13, IL12B, CCL4, CCL9, CCL10, CX3CL1 etc) in lung tissues. This excessive cytokine response (cytokine storms) may cause tissue damage and high mortality in chickens. In contrast, the expression levels of most of the cytokines remained unchanged in the lungs of LPAIV H9N2 virus infected chickens. This study indicated the relationship between host cytokines response and their roles in pathogenesis in chickens infected with HPAIVs. Agilent Custom Chicken Gene Expression 8X60k (AMADID: G4102A_059389) designed by Genotypic Technology Private Limited , Labeling kit: Agilent Quick-Amp labeling Kit (p/n5190-0442)
Project description:We isolated two highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) (CK10 and GS10) with similar genetic background but greatly differ in pathogencity in mice. CK10 is highly pathogenic in mice, whereas GS10 is nonpathogenic. However, the host mechanism of this differecne in pathogenicity is unclear. We used microarray analysis to evaluate the global transcriptional response in the lung of mice infected with CK10 or GS10.
Project description:Viral pathogens are an ongoing threat to public health worldwide. Dissecting their dependence on host biosynthetic pathways could lead to effective antiviral therapies. To define how entero- and flaviviruses redirect host ribosomes to synthesize viral proteins and disable host protein production, we performed proteomic analysis of lysates and isolated polysomes from human Huh7 cells infected with either polio, zika or dengue viruses. We find that infection remodels polysome composition along similar principles, without major changes to core ribosome stoichiometry. These viruses use different strategies to evictfrom polysomes a common set of translation initiation and RNA surveillance factors while recruiting host machineries specifically required for viral biogenesis. We also find that both zika and dengue utilize the collagen prolyl-hydroxylation machinery to mediate co-translational modification of conserved prolines in the viral polyprotein. Our findings show how RNA viruses co-opt polysome modularity and establish a powerful strategy to identify targets for selective antiviral interventions.
Project description:Certain organs are capable of containing the replication of various types of viruses. In the liver, infection of Hepatitis B virus (HBV), the etiological factor of Hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), often remains asymptomatic and leads to a chronic carrier state. Here we investigated how hepatocytes contain HBV replication and promote their own survival by orchestrating a translational defense mechanism via the stress-sensitive SUMO-2/3-specific peptidase SENP3. We found that SENP3 expression level decreased in HBV-infected hepatocytes in various models including HepG2-NTCP cell lines and a humanized mouse model. Downregulation of SENP3 reduced HBV replication and boosted host protein translation. We also discovered that IQGAP2, a Ras GTPase-activating-like protein, is a key substrate for SENP3-mediated de-SUMOylation. Downregulation of SENP3 in HBV infected cells facilitated IQGAP2 SUMOylation and degradation, which leads to suppression of HBV gene expression and restoration of global translation of host genes via modulation of AKT phosphorylation. Thus, The SENP3-IQGAP2 de-SUMOylation axis is a host defense mechanism of hepatocytes that restores host protein translation and suppresses HBV gene expression.
Project description:COVID-19 is one of the deadliest respiratory diseases, and its emergence caught the pharmaceutical industry off guard. While vaccines have been rapidly developed, treatment options for infected people remain scarce, and COVID-19 poses a substantial global threat. This study presents a novel workflow to predict robust druggable targets against emerging RNA viruses using metabolic networks and information of the viral structure and its genome sequence. For this purpose, we implemented pymCADRE and PREDICATE to create tissue-specific metabolic models, construct viral biomass functions and predict host-based antiviral targets from more than one genome. We observed that pymCADRE reduces the computational time of flux variability analysis for internal optimizations. We applied these tools to create a new metabolic network of primary bronchial epithelial cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 and identified enzymatic reactions with inhibitory effects. The most promising reported targets were from the purine metabolism, while targeting the pyrimidine and carbohydrate metabolisms seemed to be promising approaches to enhance viral inhibition. Finally, we computationally tested the robustness of our targets in all known variants of concern, verifying our targets’ inhibitory effects. Since laboratory tests are time-consuming and involve complex readouts to track processes, our workflow focuses on metabolic fluxes within infected cells and is applicable for rapid hypothesis-driven identification of potentially exploitable antivirals concerning various viruses and host cell types.
Availability: https://github.com/draeger-lab/pymCADRE/.
Project description:Objectives: Our work focuses on the responses of Solanaceous plants to viruses that cause economically important diseases in tree fruits. Using mock inoculated leaf tissue as a reference, we plan to compare the gene expression profiles of Nicotiana Benthamiana plants infected with one of three viruses; Plum Pox Potyvirus (PPV), Tomato Ringspot Nepovirus (ToRSV), and Prunus Nectrotic Ringspot Nepovirus (PNRSV). Our goals are as follows: (1) Identify genes that are induced/repressed in response to individual viruses. (2) Identify genes that are induced/repressed in response to all 3 viruses. (3) Compare results to existing potato array data to look for similarities in responses to other pathogens. Experimental Design: Nicotiana benthamiana plants were inoculated with one of three viruses: PPV, ToRSV, or PNRSV. 3 week old plants were inoculated by rubbing virus infected plant sap onto leaves dusted with carborundum. Control plants were mock inoculated using sap from healthy plants. All plants were maintained in a growth chamber at 22C for 18 days. 8 plants were inoculated with each virus or mock inoculated. This experiment was repeated twice. 4 biological replicates derived from 2 virus infected plants from each replica experiment (4 plants) are to be used for hybridizations. RNA from all mock inoculated plants was similarly pooled to create 4 biological replicates. Each replicate control will serve as a universal reference sample that is to be hybridized pair wise with each of the three virus infected samples. RNA extraction: After 18 days, un-inoculated leaves displaying clear symptoms were harvested and immediately frozen in liquid N2. Total RNA was purified using Trizol according to TIGRs listed protocol. RNA was subsequently treated with Turbo DNA-free RNase (Ambion cat#1907). Finally, total RNA was further purified on RNeasy columns (Qiagen) according to manufacturer’s instructions and quantified using a Nanodrop spectrophotometer. Keywords: Reference design