Project description:The objective of this study was to identify gene expression markers of disease severity in a cohort of RSV infected children Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the number one pathogen causing lower respiratory tract infection that leads to hospitalization in young children. Despite growing insights in the disease pathogenesis, the clinical presentation in these children is highly variable and heterogeneous, and reliable markers predictive of disease progression are lacking. We characterized the host response to acute RSV infection to identify biomarkers associated with RSV disease and disease severity. Whole genome transcriptome was analysed early on the disease course in blood samples from otherwise healthy children <2 years of age, who were either hospitalized (n = 110) or evaluated as outpatients (n = 37) due to RSV infection. Age-matched non-RSV-infected healthy children (n = 51) were analysed in parallel. A clustering approach on the transcriptome data revealed biologically meaningful biomarkers associated with progression to severe RSV disease. Overall, the whole blood transcriptome pointed to alterations in frequency of specific immune cell types (neutrophils, T- and B-lymphocytes, NK cells, monocytes) in RSV-infected children. In addition, a cluster enriched for neutrophil degranulation genes, was highly correlated with clinical disease severity. The driver genes of this cluster (OLFM4, ELANE, MMP8, BPI, CEACAM8, LCN2, LTF and MPO) were selected and validated in independent existing transcriptomics datasets. We identified a set of genes involved in neutrophil degranulation as markers for RSV disease severity. Additional prospective studies using these markers are required to further confirm their value as predictive tool in routine clinical care.
Project description:Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection in young children, the elderly, and immunocompromised hosts, and no effective vaccine or therapy exists for infants. PIWIL4, a member of the PIWI protein family that interacts with PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), was found to be induced by RSV infection in airway epithelial cells. To investigate the role of PIWIL4 in piRNA expression during RSV infection, immortalized small airway epithelial (iSAE) cells were transfected with either a non-targeting or a PIWIL4-targeting siRNA and then left uninfected or infected with RSV for 15 hours. piRNA expression was profiled using the Arraystar Human piRNA Microarray (HG19), which targets 23,677 unique piRNAs, to identify piRNAs differentially expressed upon PIWIL4 knockdown under basal and RSV-infected conditions.
Project description:Analysis of transcriptional profiles in whole blood from children < 2 years of age (and healthy matched controls) with RSV, rhinovirus and influenza infection. The hypothesis tested is that transcriptional profile heterogeneity will reflect patient clinical heterogeneity and that RSV infection induces a distinct host response compared with influenza and rhinovirus infection Total RNA extracted from whole blood (lysed in Tempus tubes) drawn from individual pediatric patients with acute RSV, influenza and Rhinovirus lower respiratory tract infection. A total of 241 samples are analyzed: 135 with acute RSV LRTI, 30 with Rhinovirus LRTI, 16 with influenza LRTI, 39 age-sex matched healthy controls and 21 samples obtained one month after the acute hospitalization in children with RSV. Samples GSM1226237-GSM1226272, which were hybridized to Platform GPL10558, were normalized separately from the other Samples in this Series, which were hybridized to Platform GPL6884. 'GSE38900_non-normalized_GSM1226237-GSM1226272.txt.gz' includes the non-normalized data for Samples GSM1226237-GSM1226272; 'GSE38900_non-normalized.txt.gz' includes the non-normalized data for the other Samples.
Project description:To study the transcriptional profile of patients with acute RSV or Influenza infection,children of median age 2.4 months (range 1.5-8.6) hospitalized with acute RSV and influenza virus infection were offered study enrollment after microbiologic confirmation of the diagnosis. Blood samples were collected from them within 42-72 hours of hospitalization. We excluded children with suspected or proven polymicrobial infections, with underlying chronic medical conditions (i.e congenital heart disease, renal insufficiency), with immunodeficiency, or those who received systemic steroids or other immunomodulatory therapies. The RSV cohort consisted of 51 patients with median age of 2 months (range 1.5-3.9) and the influenza cohort had 28 patients with median age of 5.5 months (range 1.4-21). Control samples were obtained from healthy children undergoing elective surgical procedures or at outpatient clinic visits. To exclude viral co-infections we performed nasopharyngeal viral cultures of all subjects. We recruited 10 control patients for the RSV cohort with median age of 6.7 months (range 5-10), and 12 control patients for the influenza cohort with median age of18.5 months (range 10.5-26). We used microarrays to obtain the transcriptional profile of PBMCs from patients with acute RSV or Influenza infection and compared these signatures with the transcriptional profile of primary airway epithelial cells infected with RSV or Influenza.
Project description:Analysis of transcriptional profiles in whole blood and nasopharyngeal swaps from children hospitalized with lower respiratory tract infections at their admission and their discharge, and diagnosed with either RSV or rhinovirus infections. The hypothesis is that this information will contribute to better understand the viral specific immunity and host responses to RSV infection and may suggest leads for the develoment of vaccines and specific treatment.
Project description:Analysis of transcriptional profiles in whole blood from children < 2 years of age (and healthy matched controls) with RSV, rhinovirus and influenza infection. The hypothesis tested is that transcriptional profile heterogeneity will reflect patient clinical heterogeneity and that RSV infection induces a distinct host response compared with influenza and rhinovirus infection
Project description:Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection in young children, the elderly, and immunocompromised hosts, and no effective vaccine or therapy exists for infants. PIWIL4, a member of the PIWI protein family known to interact with PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), was found to be induced by RSV infection in airway epithelial cells. To investigate the role of PIWIL4 in the transcriptional response to RSV, immortalized small airway epithelial (iSAE) cells were transfected with either a non-targeting or a PIWIL4-targeting siRNA and then left uninfected or infected with RSV for 15 hours. Gene expression was profiled using the Agilent Whole Human Genome Oligo Microarray (4x44K) to identify genes differentially expressed upon PIWIL4 knockdown under basal and RSV-infected conditions. 4 samples, one array per condition (no biological replicate arrays; RNA from three pooled technical replicate wells per condition was hybridized to a single array). 2x2 factorial design: siRNA treatment (non-targeting control vs. PIWIL4-targeting) x infection status (uninfected control vs. RSV Long strain infection, MOI 5, 15 hours post-infection) in immortalized human small airway epithelial (iSAE) cells.
Project description:Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a prevalent pathogen globally, can cause severe disease in older adults, and remains the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in the United States for children during their first year of life. Despite its prevalence worldwide, RSV specific pharmacologic interventions remain unavailable for most infected patients. Although vaccines are available for a subset of adults, further investigation of the molecular interactions between RSV and the host remains essential to understanding this prolific pathogen. To aid our understanding of the host response in both RSV infected cells, and uninfected bystanders, we utilized single-cell RNA sequencing.
Project description:Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of severe respiratory tract infections in infants and older adults. While vaccines have recently been approved for older adults and pregnant women, vaccine development for infants remains challenging due to the risk of vaccine-enhanced disease. Understanding immunological differences between target groups is essential for improving vaccination strategies, but no clear correlates of protection have been identified yet. Antibody Fc-mediated effector functions may play an important role. In a cohort of 24-month old children and adults (n=46 per group), we assessed RSV-specific IgG/IgA levels, IgG subclasses, avidity, Fc glycosylation, and neutralization, antibody-dependent NK cell activation (ADNKA), cellular phagocytosis (ADCP), and complement deposition (ADCD). Compared to children, antibodies from adults showed enhanced functionality. Furthermore, RSV-specific antibodies displayed differences in avidity and glycosylation patterns between the two groups, which might relate to differences in the number of previous exposures. Importantly, our data strongly suggest that IgG Fc afucosylation drives enhanced ADNKA capacity of RSV-specific antibodies. Our data provide a detailed overview of similarities and differences between the RSV-specific antibodies in children and adults. This information will support the ongoing quest for correlates of protection and the design of future vaccination strategies in different target populations.