Abstract
Cats are becoming more popular as household companions and pets, forming close relationships with humans. Although feline viral diseases can pose serious health hazards to pet cats, commercialized preventative vaccines are lacking. Interferons (IFNs), especially type I IFNs (IFN-α, IFN-β, and interferon omega (IFN-ω)), have been explored as effective therapeutic drugs against viral diseases in cats. Nevertheless, there is limited knowledge regarding feline IFN-ω (feIFN-ω), compared to IFN-α and IFN-β. In this study, we cloned the genes encoding feIFN-ωa and feIFN-ωb from cat spleen lymphocytes. Homology and phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that these two genes belonged to new subtypes of feIFN-ω. The recombinant feIFN-ωa and feIFN-ωb proteins were expressed in their soluble forms in Escherichia coli, followed by purification. Both proteins exhibited effective anti-vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) activity in Vero, F81 (feline kidney cell), Madin–Darby bovine kidney (MDBK), Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK), and porcine kidney (PK-15) cells, showing broader cross-species antiviral activity than the INTERCAT IFN antiviral drug. Furthermore, the recombinant feIFN-ωa and feIFN-ωb proteins demonstrated antiviral activity against VSV, feline coronavirus (FCoV), canine parvovirus (CPV), bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), indicating better broad-spectrum antiviral activity than the INTERCAT IFN. The two novel feIFN-ω proteins (feIFN-ωa and feIFN-ωb) described in this study show promising potential to serve as effective therapeutic agents for treating viral infections in pet cats.
Highlights
As cats continue to become more popular as household companions and pets [1], a variety of viral infections pose a serious threat to felines, including a high incidence of feline leukemia virus (FeLV) [2], feline coronavirus (FCoV) [3], feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) [4], and feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) [5]
Our results suggest that the feIFN-ωa and feIFN-ωb proteins described in this study show promising potential to serve as effective therapeutic agents against feline viral infections
Following nucleotide sequence homology analysis, we found that the feIFN-ωa gene (MK682680), with a size of 591 bp, shared a maximum nucleotide sequence homology of 91.88% (91.6% amino acid homology) with the 13 known subtypes of feline IFN-ω (feIFN-ω) genes published in the GenBank (Figure 1c)
Summary
As cats continue to become more popular as household companions and pets [1], a variety of viral infections pose a serious threat to felines, including a high incidence of feline leukemia virus (FeLV) [2], feline coronavirus (FCoV) [3], feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) [4], and feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) [5]. Viruses 2020, 12, 335 antiviral therapy for virus-infected cats [6]. IFNs are classified into three subgroups: type I IFNs, type II IFNs, and type III IFNs. Type I IFNs, including IFN-α, IFN-β, IFN-ε, IFN-ω, IFN-κ, IFN-δ, IFN-τ, and IFN-ζ, play a direct role in antiviral immune responses [7,8]. Type III IFNs, including IFN-λ1, IFN-λ2, and IFN-λ3, regulate the antiviral immune response via a distinct receptor complex similar to type I IFNs [10,11]
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