Transgenic shRNA pigs reduce susceptibility to foot and mouth disease virus infection
- Shihezi University, China
- Xinjiang Academy of Animal Science, China
- Jilin University, China
Abstract
Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is an economically devastating viral disease leading to a substantial loss to the swine industry worldwide. A novel alternative strategy is to develop pigs that are genetically resistant to infection. Here, we produce transgenic (TG) pigs that constitutively expressed FMDV-specific siRNA derived from small hairpin RNA (shRNA). In vitro challenge of TG fibroblasts showed the shRNA suppressed viral growth. TG and non-transgenic (Non-TG) pigs were challenged by intramuscular injection with 100 LD50 of FMDV. High fever, severe clinical sign of FMD and typical histopathological changes were observed in all of the Non-TG pigs but in none of the high-siRNA pigs. Our results show that transgenic shRNA can provide a viable tool for producing animals with enhanced resistance to FMDV.
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Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experiments involving animals were conducted under the protocol approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Shihezi University (SU-ACUC-12031).
Copyright
© 2015, Hu et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Transgenic shRNA pigs reduce susceptibility to foot and mouth disease virus infection
eLife 4:e06951.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06951
Further reading
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- Immunology and Inflammation
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that displays great variability in clinical phenotype. Many factors have been described to be correlated with its severity, and microbiota could play a key role in the infection, progression, and outcome of the disease. SARS-CoV-2 infection has been associated with nasopharyngeal and gut dysbiosis and higher abundance of opportunistic pathogens. To identify new prognostic markers for the disease, a multicentre prospective observational cohort study was carried out in COVID-19 patients divided into three cohorts based on symptomatology: mild (n = 24), moderate (n = 51), and severe/critical (n = 31). Faecal and nasopharyngeal samples were taken, and the microbiota was analysed. Linear discriminant analysis identified Mycoplasma salivarium, Prevotella dentalis, and Haemophilus parainfluenzae as biomarkers of severe COVID-19 in nasopharyngeal microbiota, while Prevotella bivia and Prevotella timonensis were defined in faecal microbiota. Additionally, a connection between faecal and nasopharyngeal microbiota was identified, with a significant ratio between P. timonensis (faeces) and P. dentalis and M. salivarium (nasopharyngeal) abundances found in critically ill patients. This ratio could serve as a novel prognostic tool for identifying severe COVID-19 cases.
