Transcriptome Sequencing Investigated the Tumor-Related Factors Changes After T. gondii Infection.

Gang Lu,Ying Hui Zhao,Yun Yun Gao,Lin Wang,Jian Zhou,Qiao Ling Li

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00181

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular parasite and causes a global epidemic parasitic disease. T. gondii-infection could inhibit the growth of tumor. In this study, the transcriptomes of samples were detected by deep sequencing analysis. The transcriptome data was compared with reference genome to perform sequence alignment and the further analysis. The analyses of differential expression and the differentially expressed genes were performed in the present study. Genes involved in P53 signaling pathway, COLORECTAL cancer pathway, NON-SMALL CELL LUNG cancer signaling pathway, and BREAST cancer signaling pathway were up-regulated or down-regulated among the samples. The KEGG analysis indicated that the cancer pathways changed after infection of T. gondii. Furthermore, tumor-related mRNAs from different samples had a large difference, which suggested that the difference might provide important information in resisting cancer. The protein results indicated that tumor-related protein changes occurred after infection of T. gondii. In conclusion, the infection changed the cancer pathways, which could possibly inhibit the growth of tumor.

Highlights

Toxoplasma gondii is a kind of obligate intracellular parasite protozoan that is distributed worldwide
The results indicated that T. gondiiinfection may influence cancer signaling pathways
The present result suggested T. gondii-infection changed the expressions of tumor-related factors, which might improve the anti-tumor ability of hosts

Summary

Introduction

Toxoplasma gondii is a kind of obligate intracellular parasite protozoan that is distributed worldwide. Once the body’s immune function is impaired, T. gondii can cause opportunistic diseases (Martins-Duarte et al, 2010). The occurrence of tumors activates the reproduction of T. gondii in hosts. Recent studies have indicated that T. gondii infection can’t cause tumors, but can inhibit the occurrence of tumors (Baird et al, 2013; Fox et al, 2013; Sanders et al, 2015, 2016; Pyo et al, 2016; Fox et al, 2017). Uracil-auxotrophic T. gondii confers long-term effective immunity to diffuse pancreatic cancer. T. gondii enhances the response of host anti-tumor CD8+ T cells and prolongs the survival time of tumor-inoculated mice (Sanders et al, 2015, 2016).

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Results

Conclusion