Epigenetic modulation of immune response in salmonid cells infected with the infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (VIR2P.1173)

The great growing of salmon farming has brought a noteworthy increase in infectious diseases, generating important economic losses in the aquaculture industry. The infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) is an agent of high mortalities in fish farmed. The aim of this study is elucidate whether the antiviral response caused by IPNV is through epigenetic mechanisms. Studies of methylation in CpG islands of the promoters of cytokines in infected salmonids cells with IPNV and treatments with DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) inhibitors were performed to evaluate the effect on the expression of cytokines. We observed that expression of cytokines, in salmonids cells infected with IPNV was associated to the promoter methylation status. Moreover, DNA methyltransferase inhibitors were able to modulate the expression of these cytokines. Our work suggested that epigenetic mechanisms participate in the regulation of host genes expression in IPNV infection.