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. 2017 Oct 17;14(1):198.
doi: 10.1186/s12985-017-0864-8.

Differential expression of porcine microRNAs in African swine fever virus infected pigs: a proof-of-concept study

Fernando Núñez-Hernández  1 , Lester Josué Pérez  2 , Marta Muñoz  1 , Gonzalo Vera  3 , Francesc Accensi  1   4 , Armand Sánchez  3   5 , Fernando Rodríguez  1 , José I Núñez  6
Affiliations

Differential expression of porcine microRNAs in African swine fever virus infected pigs: a proof-of-concept study

Fernando Núñez-Hernández et al. Virol J. .

Abstract

Background: African swine fever (ASF) is a re-expanding devastating viral disease currently threatening the pig industry worldwide. MicroRNAs are a class of 17-25 nucleotide non- coding RNAs that have been shown to have critical functions in a wide variety of biological processes, such as cell differentiation, cell cycle regulation, carcinogenesis, apoptosis, regulation of immunity as well as in viral infections by cleavage or translational repression of mRNAs. Nevertheless, there is no information about miRNA expression in an ASFV infection.

Methods: In this proof-of-concept study, we have analyzed miRNAs expressed in spleen and submandibular lymph node of experimentally infected pigs with a virulent (E75) or its derived attenuated (E75CV1) ASFV strain, as well as, at different times post-infection with the virulent strain, by high throughput sequencing of small RNA libraries.

Results: Spleen presented a more differential expression pattern than lymph nodes in an ASFV infection. Of the most abundant miRNAs, 12 were differentially expressed in both tissues at two different times in infected animals with the virulent strain. Of these, miR-451, miR-145-5p, miR-181a and miR-122 presented up-regulation at late times post-infection while miR-92a, miR-23a, miR-92b-3p, miR-126-5p, miR-126-3p, miR-30d, miR-23b and miR-92c showed down-regulation. Of the 8 differentially expressed miRNAs identified at the same time post-infection in infected animals with the virulent strain compared with animals infected with its attenuated strain, miR-126-5p, miR-92c, miR-92a, miR-30e-5p and miR-500a-5p presented up-regulation whereas miR-125b, miR-451 and miR-125a were down-regulated. All these miRNAs have been shown to be associated with cellular genes involved in pathways related to the immune response, virus-host interactions as well as with several viral genes.

Conclusion: The study of miRNA expression will contribute to a better understanding of African swine fever virus pathogenesis, essential in the development of any disease control strategy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All procedures were carried out in strict accordance with the guidelines of the institutional animal ethics committee of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), with the permit number DMAH-5796 for this specific study, according to the Spanish and European animal experimentation ethics law. Animals were euthanized following the European Directive 2010/63/EU.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Network of DE miRNA interactions in animals infected with the virulent strain at different time points. ASFV genes and porcine genes involved in virus- host interactions are represented. Hexagon size is proportional to the miRNAs number of interactions. Circles indicate cellular genes and ovals indicate viral genes. Colors indicate the main/s pathway/s in which they are involved or the described function of the viral genes
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Network of DE miRNAs interactions in animals infected with virulent strain and animals infected with attenuated strain. ASFV genes and porcine genes at 3 dpi involved in virus- host interactions are represented. Hexagon size is proportional to the miRNAs number of interactions. Circles indicate cellular genes and ovals indicate viral genes. Colors indicate the main pathway/s in which they are involved or the described function of the viral genes
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Global miRNA network interaction. Related DE miRNAs in both approaches with cellular target genes involved in ASFV infection and with viral genes. Hexagon size is proportional to the miRNAs number of interactions. Circles indicate cellular genes and ovals indicate viral genes. Colors indicate the main pathway/s in which they are involved or the described function of the viral genes
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