Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Infection by Pseudorabies Virus
J. F. Yuan, S. J. Zhang, O. Jafer, R. A. Furlong, O. E. Chausiaux,
C. A. Sargent, G. H. Zhang, and N. A. Affara
INTRODUCTION
Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is an alphaherpesviruses whose native host is pig. The PRV
infection mainly causes signs of central nervous system (CNS) disorder in young pigs,
and respiratory system diseases in the adult.
In this chapter, we have analyzed native host (piglets) gene expression chang-
es in response to acute PRV infection of the brain and lung using a printed human
oligonucleotide
gene set from Illumina. A total of 210 and 1,130 out of 23,000 tran-
script probes displayed differential expression respectively in the brain and lung in
piglets after PRV infection (
p
-value < 0.01), with most genes displaying up-regulation.
Biological process and pathways analysis showed that most of the up-regulated genes
are involved in cell differentiation, neurodegenerative disorders, the nervous system
and immune responses in the infected brain whereas apoptosis, cell cycle control, and
the
mTOR
signaling pathway genes were prevalent in the infected lung. Additionally, a
number of differentially expressed genes were found to map in or close to quantitative
trait loci for resistance/susceptibility to PRV in piglets.
This is the fi rst comprehensive analysis of the global transcriptional response of
the native host to acute alphaherpesvirus infection. The differentially regulated genes
reported here are likely to be of interest for the further study and understanding of host
viral gene interactions.
The PRV, is a member of the alphaherpesvirus subfamily and has multiple closely
related family members, such as the herpes simplex virus1 (HSV-1), varicellovirus
(VZV), avian herpes viruses, bovine herpesviruses (BHV-1), equine herpesviruses
(EHV-1 and EHV-4), feline herpesvirus type 1, and canine herpesvirus type [1, 2].
Thus, PRV has served as a useful model organism for the study of herpesvirus biology
[1]. Owing to its remarkable propensity to infect synaptically connected neurons, PRV
is also studied as a “live” tracer of neuronal pathways [1]. Finally, while vaccination
strategies to eradicate PRV in the US and Europe have shown great progress, they fail
to eradicate completely viral infection from a population. Thus outbreaks in swine
populations result in substantial economic losses. These include restrictions on animal
movement and trade for affected countries, with disease and infection control mea-
sures increasing production costs owing to antibody testing, vaccination programs,
and extra labor.
