Transcriptome profile of lung dendritic cells after in vitro porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) infection.

Maren Julia Pröll,Md Aminul Islam,Muhammad Jasim Uddin,Sudeep Sahadevan,Christine Große-Brinkhaus,Mehmet Ulas Cinar,Ernst Tholen,Christiane Neuhoff,Dawit Tesfaye,Christian Drosten,Mikhael Poirier,Karl Schellander,Marcel A Müller,Xueqi Qu,Shuhong Zhao

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187735

Abstract

The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is an infectious disease that leads to high financial and production losses in the global swine industry. The pathogenesis of this disease is dependent on a multitude of factors, and its control remains problematic. The immune system generally defends against infectious diseases, especially dendritic cells (DCs), which play a crucial role in the activation of the immune response after viral infections. However, the understanding of the immune response and the genetic impact on the immune response to PRRS virus (PRRSV) remains incomplete. In light of this, we investigated the regulation of the host immune response to PRRSV in porcine lung DCs using RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq). Lung DCs from two different pig breeds (Pietrain and Duroc) were collected before (0 hours) and during various periods of infection (3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 hours post infection (hpi)). RNA-Seq analysis revealed a total of 20,396 predicted porcine genes, which included breed-specific differentially expressed immune genes. Pietrain and Duroc infected lung DCs showed opposite gene expression courses during the first time points post infection. Duroc lung DCs reacted more strongly and distinctly than Pietrain lung DCs during these periods (3, 6, 9, 12 hpi). Additionally, cluster analysis revealed time-dependent co-expressed groups of genes that were involved in immune-relevant pathways. Key clusters and pathways were identified, which help to explain the biological and functional background of lung DCs post PRRSV infection and suggest IL-1β1 as an important candidate gene. RNA-Seq was also used to characterize the viral replication of PRRSV for each breed. PRRSV was able to infect and to replicate differently in lung DCs between the two mentioned breeds. These results could be useful in investigations on immunity traits in pig breeding and enhancing the health of pigs.

Highlights

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is one of the most economically important viral pig diseases worldwide [1]
The RNA-Seq technique was used for the first time to characterize transcriptional changes after PRRS virus (PRRSV) infection in Pietrain and Duroc lung dendritic cells (DCs)
Previous studies used the RNA-Seq technology to investigate Pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAMs) and lung tissue post PRRSV infection [15,50], but no analysis had been performed with lung DCs from two different pig breeds!

Summary

Introduction

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is one of the most economically important viral pig diseases worldwide [1]. The PRRS virus (PRRSV) is a single-stranded 15 kb positive-sense RNA virus [2,3]. PRRS is characterized by reproductive failure in sows and respiratory disease patterns in pigs of all ages [4,6]. The control of PRRS within a pig population remains problematic due to its etiopathology, which relies on multiple factors, such as infectious agents, the host, environmental and management considerations as well as genetic factors of host and virus [10,11]. Due to the limited availability of immunologically effective vaccines, the control of PRRSV still remains problematic [12,13,14]

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