Interaction Between PEDV and Its Hosts: A Closer Look at the ORF3 Accessory Protein

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a causative agent of a highly contagious enteric disease in swine of all ages, leading to severe economic losses for the swine industry in many countries. One of the most effective approaches in controlling PEDV infection is vaccination. The ORF3 accessory protein has been proposed as a crucial viral virulence factor in a natural host. However, due to the lack of an extensive comparative study of ORF3, exactly how the ORF3 takes part in virus replication and pathogenesis as well as its role in host-virus interaction is unclear. In this review, we aim to discuss the current knowledge of ORF3 concerning its dispensability for viral replication in vitro, ability to modulate host responses, contribution to virus pathogenicity, and research gaps among ORF3 functional studies. These will be beneficial for further studies to a better understanding of PEDV biology and PEDV vaccine development.

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The Roles of Apoptosis in Swine Response to Viral Infection and Pathogenesis of Swine Enteropathogenic Coronaviruses

Frontiers in Veterinary Science ◽

10.3389/fvets.2020.572425 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Author(s):

Zhichao Xu ◽

Yun Zhang ◽

Yongchang Cao

Keyword(s):

Viral Infections ◽

System Development ◽

Biological Evolution ◽

Host Responses ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus ◽

Swine Industry ◽

Animal Virus ◽

Diarrhea Virus ◽

Severe Diarrhea

Apoptosis is a tightly regulated mechanism of cell death that plays important roles in various biological processes including biological evolution, multiple system development, anticancer, and viral infections. Swine enteropathogenic coronaviruses invade and damage villous epithelial cells of the small intestine causing severe diarrhea with high mortality rate in suckling piglets. Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV), and Swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) are on the top list of commonly-seen swine coronaviruses with a feature of diarrhea, resulting in significant economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. Apoptosis has been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis process of animal virus infectious diseases. Understanding the roles of apoptosis in host responses against swine enteropathogenic coronaviruses infection contribute to disease prevention and control. Here we summarize the recent findings that focus on the apoptosis during swine coronaviruses infection, in particular, TGEV, PEDV, PDCoV, and SADS-CoV.

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Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus 3C-Like Protease-Mediated Nucleocapsid Processing: Possible Link to Viral Cell Culture Adaptability

Journal of Virology ◽

10.1128/jvi.01660-16 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 91 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Peera Jaru-Ampornpan ◽

Juggragarn Jengarn ◽

Asawin Wanitchang ◽

Anan Jongkaewwattana

Keyword(s):

Cell Culture ◽

Growth Retardation ◽

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus ◽

Vaccine Development ◽

Wild Type Virus ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Swine Industry ◽

Diarrhea Virus ◽

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea

ABSTRACT Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes severe diarrhea and high mortality rates in newborn piglets, leading to massive losses to the swine industry worldwide during recent epidemics. Intense research efforts are now focusing on defining viral characteristics that confer a growth advantage, pathogenicity, or cell adaptability in order to better understand the PEDV life cycle and identify suitable targets for antiviral or vaccine development. Here, we report a unique phenomenon of PEDV nucleocapsid (N) cleavage by the PEDV-encoded 3C-like protease (3Cpro) during infection. The identification of the 3Cpro cleavage site at the C terminus of N supported previous observations that PEDV 3Cpro showed a substrate requirement slightly different from that of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) 3Cpro and revealed a greater flexibility in its substrate recognition site. This cleavage motif is present in the majority of cell culture-adapted PEDV strains but is missing in emerging field isolates. Remarkably, reverse-genetics-derived cell culture-adapted PEDVAVCT12 harboring uncleavable N displayed growth retardation in Vero E6-APN cells compared to the wild-type virus. These observations altogether shed new light on the investigation and characterization of the PEDV nucleocapsid protein and its possible link to cell culture adaptation. IMPORTANCE Recurrent PEDV outbreaks have resulted in enormous economic losses to swine industries worldwide. To gain the upper hand in combating this disease, it is necessary to understand how this virus replicates and evades host immunity. Characterization of viral proteins provides important clues to mechanisms by which viruses survive and spread. Here, we characterized an intriguing phenomenon in which the nucleocapsids of some PEDV strains are proteolytically processed by the virally encoded main protease. Growth retardation in recombinant PEDV carrying uncleavable N suggests a replication advantage provided by the cleavage event, at least in the cell culture system. These findings may direct us to a more complete understanding of PEDV replication and pathogenicity.

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The S Gene Is Necessary but Not Sufficient for the Virulence of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus Novel Variant Strain BJ2011C

Journal of Virology ◽

10.1128/jvi.00603-18 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 92 (13) ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Di Wang ◽

Xinna Ge ◽

Dongjie Chen ◽

Jie Li ◽

Yueqi Cai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus ◽

Vaccine Development ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Avirulent Strain ◽

Diarrhea Virus ◽

Severe Diarrhea ◽

S Gene ◽

Viral Virulence ◽

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea ◽

Highly Virulent

ABSTRACT The recently emerged highly virulent variants of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) have caused colossal economic losses to the worldwide swine industry. In this study, we investigated the viral virulence determinants by constructing a series of chimeric mutants between the highly virulent strain BJ2011C and the avirulent strain CHM2013. When tested in the 2-day-old piglet model, wild-type (WT) BJ2011C caused severe diarrhea and death of the piglets within 72 h. In contrast, its chimeric derivative carrying the S gene from CHM2013 (BJ2011C-S CHM ) was avirulent to the piglets. Moreover, reciprocal substitution of the BJ2011C S gene (CHM2013-S BJ ) did not enable CHM2013 to gain any virulence. However, when the whole structural protein-coding region of BJ2011C (CHM2013-SP BJ ) was swapped, CHM2013 started to gain the ability to efficiently colonize the intestinal tract and caused diarrhea in piglets. A further gain of virulence required additional acquisition of the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of BJ2011C, and the resultant virus (CHM2013-SP + 3UTR BJ ) caused more severe diarrhea and death of piglets. Together, our findings suggest that the virulence of PEDV epidemic strains is a multigenic event and that the S gene is only one of the necessary determinants. IMPORTANCE The recently emerged highly virulent PEDV variants are the major cause of the global porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) pandemic. The S gene of the variants undergoes remarkable variations and has been thought to be the virulence determinant for the enhanced pathogenesis. Our studies here showed that the S gene is only part of the story and that full virulence requires cooperation from other genes. Our findings provide insight into the pathogenic mechanism of the highly virulent PEDV variants and have implications for future vaccine development.

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Development and In Vivo Evaluation of a MGF110-1L Deletion Mutant in African Swine Fever Strain Georgia

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v13020286 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 286

Author(s):

Elizabeth Ramirez-Medina ◽

Elizabeth Vuono ◽

Sarah Pruitt ◽

Ayushi Rai ◽

Ediane Silva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Deletion Mutant ◽

African Swine Fever Virus ◽

Field Isolate ◽

African Swine Fever ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Swine Industry ◽

In Vivo Evaluation ◽

Viral Virulence

African swine fever (ASF) is currently causing an epizootic, affecting pigs throughout Eurasia, and causing significant economic losses in the swine industry. ASF is caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV) that consists of a large dsDNA genome that encodes for more than 160 genes; few of these genes have been studied in detail. ASFV contains four multi-gene family (MGF) groups of genes that have been implicated in regulating the immune response and host specificity; however, the individual roles of most of these genes have not been well studied. Here, we describe the evaluation of the previously uncharacterized ASFV MGF110-1L open reading frame (ORF) using a deletion mutant of the ASFV currently circulating throughout Eurasia. The recombinant ASFV lacking the MGF110-1L gene (ASFV-G-ΔMGF110-1L) demonstrated in vitro that the MGF110-1L gene is non-essential, since ASFV-G-ΔMGF110-1L had similar replication kinetics in primary swine macrophage cell cultures when compared to parental highly virulent field isolate Georgia2007 (ASFV-G). Experimental infection of domestic pigs with ASFV-G-ΔMGF110-1L produced a clinical disease similar to that caused by the parental ASFV-G, confirming that deletion of the MGF110-1L gene from the ASFV genome does not affect viral virulence.

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Streptococcus pluranimalium 2N12 Exerts an Antagonistic Effect Against the Swine Pathogen Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae by Producing Hydrogen Peroxide

Frontiers in Veterinary Science ◽

10.3389/fvets.2021.787241 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Katy Vaillancourt ◽

Michel Frenette ◽

Marcelo Gottschalk ◽

Daniel Grenier

Keyword(s):

Hydrogen Peroxide ◽

Culture Supernatant ◽

Actinobacillus Pleuropneumoniae ◽

Antagonistic Effect ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Protective Mechanism ◽

Upper Respiratory Tract ◽

Lactate Oxidase ◽

Swine Industry

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the causal agent of porcine pleuropneumonia, a highly contagious and often deadly respiratory disease that causes major economic losses in the swine industry worldwide. The aim of the present study was to investigate the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-dependent antagonistic activity of Streptococcus pluranimalium 2N12 (pig nasal isolate) against A. pleuropneumoniae. A fluorimetric assay showed that S. pluranimalium produces H2O2 dose- and time-dependently. The production of H2O2 increased in the presence of exogenous lactate, suggesting the involvement of lactate oxidase. All 20 strains of A. pleuropneumoniae tested, belonging to 18 different serovars, were susceptible to H2O2, with minimal inhibitory concentrations and minimal bactericidal concentrations ranging from 0.57 to 2.3 mM. H2O2, as well as a culture supernatant of S. pluranimalium, killed planktonic cells of A. pleuropneumoniae. Treating the culture supernatant with catalase abolished its bactericidal property. H2O2 was also active against a pre-formed biofilm-like structure of A. pleuropneumoniae albeit to a lesser extent. A checkerboard assay was used to show that there were antibacterial synergistic interactions between H2O2 and conventional antibiotics, more particularly ceftiofur. Based on our results and within the limitations of this in vitro study, the production of H2O2 by S. pluranimalium could be regarded as a potential protective mechanism of the upper respiratory tract against H2O2-sensitive pathogens such as A. pleuropneumoniae.

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Surface-associated and secreted factors ofStreptococcus suisin epidemiology, pathogenesis and vaccine development

Animal Health Research Reviews ◽

10.1017/s146625230999003x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 65-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 89

Author(s):

Christoph Georg Baums ◽

Peter Valentin-Weigand

Keyword(s):

Vaccine Development ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Swine Industry ◽

Major Health Problem ◽

Major Health ◽

Secreted Factors ◽

Diverse Species ◽

Virulent Strains ◽

Enormous Amount ◽

Made In

AbstractStreptococcus suisis an invasive porcine pathogen associated with meningitis, arthritis, bronchopneumonia and other diseases. The pathogen constitutes a major health problem in the swine industry worldwide. Furthermore,S. suisis an important zoonotic agent causing meningitis and other diseases in humans exposed to pigs or pork. Current knowledge on pathogenesis is limited, despite the enormous amount of data generated by ‘omics’ research. Accordingly, immunprophylaxis (in pigs) is hampered by lack of a cross-protective vaccine against virulent strains of this diverse species. This review focuses on bacterial factors, both surface-associated and secreted ones, which are considered to contribute toS. suisinteraction(s) with host factors and cells. Factors are presented with respect to (i) their identification and features, (ii) their distribution amongS. suisand (iii) their significance for virulence, immune response and vaccination. This review also shows the enormous progress made in research onS. suisover the last few years, and it emphasizes the numerous challenging questions remaining to be answered in the future.

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Engineering a Live Attenuated Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus Vaccine Candidate via Inactivation of the Viral 2'-O-Methyltransferase and the Endocytosis Signal of the Spike Protein

Journal of Virology ◽

10.1128/jvi.00406-19 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 93 (15) ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Yixuan Hou ◽

Hanzhong Ke ◽

Jineui Kim ◽

Dongwan Yoo ◽

Yunfang Su ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus ◽

Vaccine Development ◽

Vaccine Candidate ◽

Spike Protein ◽

Economic Losses ◽

High Dose ◽

Type I ◽

Viral Pathogen ◽

Diarrhea Virus ◽

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea

ABSTRACT Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes high mortality in neonatal piglets; however, effective and safe vaccines are still not available. We hypothesized that inactivation of the 2′-O-methyltransferase (2′-O-MTase) activity of nsp16 and the endocytosis signal of the spike protein attenuates PEDV yet retains its immunogenicity in pigs. We generated a recombinant PEDV, KDKE4A, with quadruple alanine substitutions in the catalytic tetrad of the 2′-O-MTase using a virulent infectious cDNA clone, icPC22A, as the backbone. Next, we constructed another mutant, KDKE4A-SYA, by abolishing the endocytosis signal of the spike protein of KDKE4A. Compared with icPC22A, the KDKE4A and KDKE4A-SYA mutants replicated less efficiently in vitro but induced stronger type I and type III interferon responses. The pathogenesis and immunogenicities of the mutants were evaluated in gnotobiotic piglets. The virulence of KDKE4A-SYA and KDKE4A was significantly reduced compared with that of icPC22A. Mortality rates were 100%, 17%, and 0% in the icPC22A-, KDKE4A-, and KDKE4A-SYA-inoculated groups, respectively. At 21 days postinoculation (dpi), all surviving pigs were challenged orally with a high dose of icPC22A. The KDKE4A-SYA- and KDKE4A-inoculated pigs were protected from the challenge, because no KDKE4A-SYA- and one KDKE4A-inoculated pig developed diarrhea whereas all the pigs in the mock-inoculated group had severe diarrhea, and 33% of them died. Furthermore, we serially passaged the KDKE4A-SYA mutant in pigs three times and did not find any reversion of the introduced mutations. The data suggest that KDKE4A-SYA may be a PEDV vaccine candidate. IMPORTANCE PEDV is the most economically important porcine enteric viral pathogen and has caused immense economic losses in the pork industries in many countries. Effective and safe vaccines are desperately required but still not available. 2′-O-MTase (nsp16) is highly conserved among coronaviruses (CoVs), and the inactivation of nsp16 in live attenuated vaccines has been attempted for several betacoronaviruses. We show that inactivation of both 2′-O-MTase and the endocytosis signal of the spike protein is an approach to designing a promising live attenuated vaccine for PEDV. The in vivo passaging data also validated the stability of the KDKE4A-SYA mutant. KDKE4A-SYA warrants further evaluation in sows and their piglets and may be used as a platform for further optimization. Our findings further confirmed that nsp16 can be a universal target for CoV vaccine development and will aid in the development of vaccines against other emerging CoVs.

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Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV) ORF3 Enhances Viral Proliferation by Inhibiting Apoptosis of Infected Cells

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v12020214 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 214 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Fusheng Si ◽

Xiaoxia Hu ◽

Chenyang Wang ◽

Bingqing Chen ◽

Ruiyang Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus ◽

Underlying Mechanism ◽

Vero Cells ◽

Orf3 Gene ◽

Accessory Gene ◽

Orf3 Protein ◽

Diarrhea Virus ◽

Viral Virulence ◽

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea

The genomes of coronaviruses carry accessory genes known to be associated with viral virulence. The single accessory gene of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), ORF3, is dispensable for virus replication in vitro, while viral mutants carrying ORF3 truncations exhibit an attenuated phenotype of which the underlying mechanism is unknown. Here, we studied the effect of ORF3 deletion on the proliferation of PEDV in Vero cells. To this end, four recombinant porcine epidemic diarrhea viruses (PEDVs) were rescued using targeted RNA recombination, three carrying the full-length ORF3 gene from different PEDV strains, and one from which the ORF3 gene had been deleted entirely. Our results showed that PEDVs with intact or naturally truncated ORF3 replicated to significantly higher titers than PEDV without an ORF3. Further characterization revealed that the extent of apoptosis induced by PEDV infection was significantly lower with the viruses carrying an intact or C-terminally truncated ORF3 than with the virus lacking ORF3, indicating that the ORF3 protein as well as its truncated form interfered with the apoptosis process. Collectively, we conclude that PEDV ORF3 protein promotes virus proliferation by inhibiting cell apoptosis caused by virus infection. Our findings provide important insight into the role of ORF3 protein in the pathogenicity of PEDV.

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Selection and Characterization of CSFV-Specific Single-Domain Antibodies and Their Application along with Immunomagnetic Nanobeads and Quantum Dots

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2020/3201630 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Shunli Yang ◽

Li Yuan ◽

Youjun Shang ◽

Jinyan Wu ◽

Xiangtao Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quantum Dots ◽

Magnetic Beads ◽

Molecular Probes ◽

Single Domain ◽

Molecular Probe ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Single Domain Antibody ◽

Swine Industry ◽

E2 Protein

Outbreak of classical swine fever (CSF) results in high mortality and thus causes severe economic losses in the swine industry. Single-domain antibody (sdAb) is the smallest antigen-binding molecule derived from camelid heavy-chain antibodies and has the potential to be used as a molecular probe for detection of CSF virus (CSFV). In this study, two sdAb fragments against the E2 antigen of CSFV were obtained, expressed in vitro. The functional characteristics analysis indicated that the recombinant sdAbE2-1 and sdAbE2-2 have excellent binding activity, specificity, and high affinity with equilibrium constant value of 3.34 × 10−7 and 1.35 × 10−8 M to E2 protein. Then, sdAbE2s were conjugated with quantum dots (QD)/AF488 to synthesize two molecular probes for imaging CSFV distribution in cells. The sdAbE2-1 was also labeled with carboxyl-magnetic beads to construct immunomagnetic nanobeads (IMNBs) able to capture CSFV virions and recombinant E2 protein. QD/AF455-sdAbE2s probes colocalised with CSFV virions in swine testis cells, and IMNBs were used as a detection template and proved to bind specifically with CSFV virions and E2 protein. The selected sdAb fragments and sdAb-based molecular probes may be used for the rapid identification of CSFV during field outbreaks and for research on CSFV and host interactions.

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Genomics of Avian Viral Infections

Genes ◽

10.3390/genes10100814 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 814 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Smith

Keyword(s):

Viral Infections ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Host Susceptibility ◽

Host Responses ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Poultry Industry ◽

Special Issue ◽

Viral Pathogens ◽

Genetic Mechanisms ◽

Global Population

The poultry industry currently accounts for the production of around 118 million metric tons of meat and around 74 million metric tons of eggs annually. As the global population continues to increase, so does our reliance on poultry as a food source. It is therefore of vital importance that we safeguard this valuable resource and make the industry as economically competitive as possible. Avian viral infections, however, continue to cost the poultry industry billions of dollars annually. This can be in terms of vaccination costs, loss of birds and decreased production. With a view to improving the health and welfare of commercial birds and to minimizing associated economic losses, it is therefore of great importance that we try to understand the genetic mechanisms underlying host susceptibility and resilience to some of the major viral pathogens that threaten the poultry species. Some avian viruses, through their zoonotic potential, also pose a risk to human health. This Special Issue will present papers that describe our current knowledge on host responses to various viral pathogens, the genetics underlying those responses and how genomics can begin to provide a solution for resolving the threat posed by these infections.

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