BioProject

Orthopoxviruses are large DNA viruses which can cause disease in numerous host species. More...

Orthopoxviruses are large DNA viruses which can cause disease in numerous host species. Even though the eradication of variola virus - the causative agent of human smallpox – succeeded, with the end of vaccinations several other orthopoxviruses emerged as potential threat to human health. For instance, animal-borne monkeypox virus, cowpox virus and closely related vaccinia virus are all capable of establishing zoonotic infections in humans. The disease caused by each virus differs in terms of expression and severity, but we still know little about the reasons for these different phenotypes. They may be explained by the unique repertoire of host cell modulating factors encoded by each virus. In this study, we aimed at characterizing the specific modulation of the host cells gene expression profile by orthopoxvirus infection. In our study we analyzed changes in host cell gene expression of HeLa cells after infection with cowpox virus, monkeypox virus or vaccinia virus and compared these to each other and to the gene expression profile of non-infected cells using Agilent Whole Genome Microarray technology. We could identify major differences in viral modulation of host cell immune response genes, especially an induction of genes involved in leukocyte migration and Toll-like receptor signalling in cowpox and monkeypox virus infected cells. This was not observed following vaccinia virus infection. If these differences contribute to the different clinical manifestation of cowpox, monkeypox and vaccinia virus infections in certain host species remains to be elucidated. Overall design: We analyzed the gene expression profile of HeLa cells wich were either mock-infected or infected with Vaccinia virus strain IHD-W, Cowpox virus strain Brighton Red or Monkeypox virus strain MSF#6 at a multiplicity of infection of 5. Experiments were performed in duplicate. At 6 h post infection total RNA was isolated from infected cells and used for microarray analysis. Less...