Project description:Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease posing a threat to the public health globally. Rabies virus (RABV) is excreted in the saliva of infected animals, and is primarily transmitted through bite contact. Salivary glands play an important role for virus propagation. However, the significance of salivary glands is less studied in RABV pathogenic mechanisms. To identify functionally important genes in the salivary glands, we employed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to establish and analyze mRNA expression profiles in parotid tissue infected with two RABV strains, CVS-11 and PB4. We map the transcriptome changes in response to RABV infection in parotid tissue for the first time. This work provides new clues to the study of RABV-affected salivary gland function and RABV transmission mechanisms in parotid tissue. And the salivary gland-enriched transcripts could be potential targets of interest for rabies disease control.
Project description:Macrophages are amongst the first immune cells that encounter rabies virus (RABV) at injured sites, but insights into if and how RABV affects macrophage activation are scarce. We undertook this study to characterize the transcriptional profile of human monocyte-derived macrophages that were exposed to RABV in vitro, to examine the antiviral response and potential RABV-induced immunosuppression mechanisms in these cells.
Project description:Rabies, caused by the rabies virus (RABV), is the oldest known zoonotic infectious disease. Although the molecular mechanisms of RABV pathogenesis have been investigated extensively, the interactions between host and RABV are not clearly understood. It is now known that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in various physiological and pathological processes, but their possible roles in the host response to RABV infection remain to be elucidated. To better understand the pathogenesis of RABV, RNAs from RABV-infected and uninfected human neuroblastoma cells (SK-N-SH) were analyzed using human lncRNA microarrays. We identified 896 lncRNAs and 579 mRNAs that were differentially expressed after infection, indicating a potential role for lncRNAs in the immune response to RABV. Differentially expressed RNAs were examined using Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and were tentatively assigned to biological pathways using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). A lncRNA-mRNA-transcription factor co-expression network was constructed to relate lncRNAs to regulatory factors and pathways that may be important in virus-host interactions. The network analysis suggests that E2F4, TAF7 and several lncRNAs function as transcriptional regulators in various signaling pathways. This study is the first global analysis of lncRNA and mRNA co-expression during RABV infection, provides deeper insight into the mechanism of RABV pathogenesis, and reveals promising candidate for future investigation.
Project description:Rabies virus (RABV) proteins play dual roles during the infection of complex neural tissue, the generation and spread of new virions and the active inhibition of cellular innate immune pathways, both contributing to rabies’ lethality. While spatially-distinct RABV protein residues specializing in virus-centric and immune-inhibitory functions have been identified, how these dual functions interact to shape infection outcomes across diverse types of host brain cells is unknown. To “unmask” and study how innate immune inhibition affects the transcriptional regulation of the human and viral genome with cellular resolution, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing of co-cultured human brain cell types, comparing infection dynamics of a wild-type RABV isolate virus to a mutant virus in which six critical point mutations in the P and M RABV proteins selectively neuter antagonism of interferon- and NF-κB- dependent cellular responses. Our analysis reveals that RABV gene expression is shaped by host cell type and that wild-type RABV infection induces small-scale, cell-type conserved transcriptional programs that may support infection by hijacking transcriptional feedback systems that control pro-viral host cell factors while minimizing anti-viral responses. In contrast to accepted models, disinhibited innate immune signaling increases RABV transcriptional output across infected cell types. Most strikingly, we discovered a sub-population of “pro-viral” astrocytes that supports an average of 6-fold higher viral mRNA expression through a massive host cell transcriptional change involving ~38% of the astrocyte-expressed human genome. Our analysis suggests that “pro-viral”-like astrocytes are a rare subtype found in the human brain and are poised to play a protective role during viral infection by advertising pathogens to microglia.
Project description:Host-virus interaction was analyzed at microRNA expression level. The hypothesis tested in the present study was that rabies virus (RABV) infection affects the microRNA expression in brains of mice and RABV with different virulence induce distinct microRNA expression pattern in host. Results provide important information that RABV infection led to alteration of microRNA expression in brains of mice and FJDRV, a street rabies virus with highly virulence isolated from brain of rabid dog in Fujian provice of China, or ERA, a laboratory-adapted rabies virus with lower virulence induced different microRNA expression pattern, and some them may involved in host defense and immune-related function.
Project description:The hypothesis tested in the present study was that rabies virus (RABV) infection affects the gene expression in microglial cells. Results provide important information that RABV infection led to alteration of gene expression in microglia. A twelve-chip study was performed using total RNA isolated from RABV- or mock-infected BV-2 at 12, 24, or 48 hpi.
Project description:The hypothesis tested in the present study was that rabies virus (RABV) infection affects the gene expression in microglial cells. Results provide important information that RABV infection led to alteration of gene expression in microglia.
Project description:Here we show the transcriptome of brain from RABV infected B6 mice and TLR7 KO mice. These differential transcripts will provide a reference for studies focus on the relationship between TLR7-dependent signaling and pathogenicity of RABV.
Project description:Rabies virus (RABV) is a highly neurotropic pathogen that typically leads to mortality of infected animals and humans. The precise etiology of rabies neuropathogenesis is unknown, though it is hypothesized to be due either to neuronal death or dysfunction. Our approach to study the survival and integrity of RABV-infected neurons was to infect Cre reporter mice with recombinant RABV expressing Cre-recombinase (RABV-Cre) to switch neurons constitutively expressing tdTomato (red) to expression of a Cre-inducible EGFP (green), permanently marking neurons that had been infected in vivo. We were able to isolate these previously infected neurons (“infected”) by flow cytometry and assayed their gene expression profiles compared to uninfected cells (“uninfected”) from the same mice.