Transcriptomic profiles of human foreskin fibroblast cells in response to orf virus

// Daxiang Chen 1 , Mingjian Long 1 , Bin Xiao 2 , Yufeng xiong 1 , Huiqin Chen 1 , Yu Chen 1 , Zhenzhan Kuang 1 , Ming Li 1, 3 , Yingsong Wu 1, 3 , Daniel L. Rock 4 , Daoyuan Gong 5 , Yong Wang 5 , Haijian He5, Fang Liu 6 , Shuhong Luo 1,5 and Wenbo Hao 1, 3 1 Institute of Antibody Engineering, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, P.R. China 2 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Guangzhou General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command of PLA, Guangzhou, 510010, P.R. China 3 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, P.R. China 4 Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Urbana, IL 61802 USA 5 Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Stomatology and Medicine, Foshan University, Chancheng District, Foshan, Guangdong Province, 528000 P.R. China 6 Department of Pathophysiology, School of Stomatology and Medicine, Foshan University, Chancheng District, Foshan, Guangdong Province, 528000 P.R. China Correspondence to: Shuhong Luo, email: sluo815@gamil.com Wenbo Hao, email: haowa@126.com Keywords: orf virus, transcriptomic profiles, apoptosis, antiviral immune response, cell cycle Received: January 18, 2017     Accepted: March 20, 2017     Published: April 25, 2017 ABSTRACT Orf virus has been utilized as a safe and efficient viral vector against not only diverse infectious diseases, but also against tumors. However, the nature of the genes triggered by the vector in human cells is poorly characterized. Using RNA sequencing technology, we compared specific changes in the transcriptomic profiles in human foreskin fibroblast cells following infection by the orf virus. The results indicated that orf virus upregulates or downregulates expression of a variety of genes, including genes involved in antiviral immune response, apoptosis, cell cycle and a series of signaling pathways, such as the IFN and p53-signaling pathways. The orf virus stimulates or inhibits immune gene expression such as chemokines, chemokine receptors, cytokines, cytokine receptors, and molecules involved in antigen uptake and processing after infection. Expression of pro-apoptotic genes increased at 8 hours post-infection. The p53 signaling pathway was activated to induce apoptosis at the same time. However, the cell cycle program was promoted after infection, which may be due to the immunomodulatory genes of the orf virus. This presents the first description of transcription profile changes in human foreskin fibroblast cells after orf virus infection and provides an in-depth analysis of the interaction between the host and orf virus. These data offer new insights into the understanding of the mechanisms of infection by orf virus and identify potential targets for future studies.