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The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is an infectious disease that leads to high financial and production losses in the global swine industry. The pathogenesis of this disease is dependent on a multitude of factors, and its control remains problematic. The immune system generally defends against infectious diseases, especially dendritic cells (DCs), which play a crucial role in the activation of the immune response after viral infections. However, the understanding of the immune response and the genetic impact on the immune response to PRRS virus (PRRSV) remains incomplete. In light of this, we investigated the regulation of the host immune response to PRRSV in porcine lung DCs using RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq). Lung DCs from two different pig breeds (Pietrain and Duroc) were collected before (0 hours) and during various periods of infection (3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 hours post infection (hpi)). RNA-Seq analysis revealed a total of 20,396 predicted porcine genes, which included breed-specific differentially expressed immune genes. Pietrain and Duroc infected lung DCs showed opposite gene expression courses during the first time points post infection. Duroc lung DCs reacted more strongly and distinctly than Pietrain lung DCs during these periods (3, 6, 9, 12 hpi). Additionally, cluster analysis revealed time-dependent co-expressed groups of genes that were involved in immune-relevant pathways. Key clusters and pathways were identified, which help to explain the biological and functional background of lung DCs post PRRSV infection and suggest IL-1β1 as an important candidate gene. RNA-Seq was also used to characterize the viral replication of PRRSV for each breed. PRRSV was able to infect and to replicate differently in lung DCs between the two mentioned breeds. These results could be useful in investigations on immunity traits in pig breeding and enhancing the health of pigs.

The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a devastating viral disease affecting swine production, health and welfare throughout the world. A synergistic action of the innate and the adaptive immune system of the host is essential for mounting a durable protective immunity through vaccination. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the transcriptome profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to characterize the innate and the adaptive immune response to PRRS Virus (PRRSV) vaccination in Pietrain pigs. The Affymetrix gene chip porcine gene 1.0 ST array was used for the transcriptome profiling of PBMCs collected at immediately before (D0), at one (D1) and 28 days (D28) post PRRSV vaccination with three biological replications. With FDR <0.05 and log2 fold change ±1.5 as cutoff criteria, 295 and 115 transcripts were found to be differentially expressed in PBMCs during the stage of innate and adaptive response, respectively. The microarray expression results were technically validated by qRT-PCR. The gene ontology terms such as viral life cycle, regulation of lymphocyte activation, cytokine activity and inflammatory response were enriched during the innate immunity; cytolysis, T cell mediated cytotoxicity, immunoglobulin production were enriched during adaptive immunity to PRRSV vaccination. Significant enrichment of cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, signaling by interleukins, signaling by the B cell receptor (BCR), viral mRNA translation, IFN-gamma pathway and AP-1 transcription factor network pathways were indicating the involvement of altered genes in the antiviral defense. Network analysis revealed that four network modules were functionally involved with the transcriptional network of innate immunity, and five modules were linked to adaptive immunity in PBMCs. The innate immune transcriptional network was found to be regulated by LCK, STAT3, ATP5B, UBB and RSP17. While TGFß1, IL7R, RAD21, SP1 and GZMB are likely to be predictive for the adaptive immune transcriptional response to PRRSV vaccine in PBMCs. Results of the current immunogenomics study advances our understanding of PRRS in term of host-vaccine interaction, and thereby contribute to design a rationale for disease control strategy.

Pulmonary alveolar macrophages (AMs) are important in defense against bacterial lung inflammation. Cluster of differentiation 14 (CD14) is involved in recognizing bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) through MyD88-dependent and TRIF pathways of innate immunity. Sulforaphane (SFN) shows anti-inflammatory activity and suppresses DNA methylation. To identify CD14 epigenetic changes by SFN in the LPS-induced TRIF pathway, an AMs model was investigated in vitro. CD14 gene expression was induced by 5 µg/ml LPS at the time point of 12 h and suppressed by 5 µM SFN. After 12 h of LPS stimulation, gene expression was significantly up-regulated, including TRIF, TRAF6, NF-κB, TRAF3, IRF7, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IFN-β. LPS-induced TRAM, TRIF, RIPK1, TRAF3, TNF-α, IL-1β and IFN-β were suppressed by 5 µM SFN. Similarly, DNMT3a expression was increased by LPS but significantly down-regulated by 5 µM SFN. It showed positive correlation of CD14 gene body methylation with in LPS-stimulated AMs, and this methylation status was inhibited by SFN. This study suggests that SFN suppresses CD14 activation in bacterial inflammation through epigenetic regulation of CD14 gene body methylation associated with DNMT3a. The results provide insights into SFN-mediated epigenetic down-regulation of CD14 in LPS-induced TRIF pathway inflammation and may lead to new methods for controlling LPS-induced inflammation in pigs.

Background: Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is one of the most economically important viral diseases affecting swine industry worldwide. Despite routine farm vaccination, effective control strategies for PRRS remained elusive which underscores the need for in-depth studies to gain insight into the host immune response to vaccines. The current study aimed to investigate transcriptional responses to PRRS Virus (PRRSV) vaccine in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) within 3 days following vaccination in German Landrace pigs., Results: Transcriptome profiling of PBMCs from PRRSV vaccinated and age-matched unvaccinated pigs at right before (0 h), and at 6, 24 and 72 h after PRRSV vaccination was performed using the Affymetrix gene chip porcine gene 1.0 st array. Comparison of PBMCs transcriptome profiles between vaccinated and unvaccinated pigs revealed a distinct host innate immune transcriptional response to PRRSV vaccine. There was a significant temporal variation in transcriptional responses of PRRSV vaccine in PBMCs accounting 542, 2,263 and 357 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at 6, 24 and 72 h post vaccination, respectively compared to the time point before vaccination (controls). Gene ontology analysis revealed the involvement of these DEGs in various biological process including innate immune response, signal transduction, positive regulation of MAP kinase activity, TRIF-dependent toll-like receptor signaling pathway, T cell differentiation and apoptosis. Immune response specific pathways such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, chemokine signaling pathway, signal transduction, JAK-STAT pathway and regulation, TRAF6 mediated induction of NF-kB and MAPK, the NLRP3 inflammasome, endocytosis and interferon signaling were under regulation during the early stage of PRRSV vaccination. Network enrichment analysis revealed APP, TRAF6, PIN1, FOS, CTNNB1, TNFAIP3, TIP1, CDKN1, SIRT1, ESR1 and HDAC5 as the highly interconnected hubs of the functional network of PRRSV vaccine induced transcriptome changes in PBMCs., Conclusions: This study showed that a massive gene expression change occurred in PBMCs following PRRSV vaccination in German Landrace pigs. Within first 3 days of vaccine exposure, the highest transcript abundance was observed at 24 h after vaccination compared to that of control. Results of this study suggest that APP, TRAF6, PIN1, FOS, CDKN1A and TNFAIP3 could be considered as potential candidate genes for PRRSV vaccine responsiveness.

Background: Low efficiency of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (NT) has been widely addressed with high incidence of placental abnormalities due to genetic and epigenetic modifications. MiRNAs are shown to be major regulators of such modifications. The present study has been carried out to identify the expression patterns of 377 miRNAs, their functional associations and mechanism of regulation in bovine placentas derived from artificial insemination (AI), in vitro production (IVP) and NT pregnancies., Results: This study reveals a massive deregulation of miRNAs as chromosomal cluster or miRNA families without sex-linkage in NT and in-vitro derived IVP placentas. Cell specific localization miRNAs in blastocysts and expression profiling of embryos and placentas at different developmental stages identified that the major deregulation of miRNAs exhibited in placentas at day 50 of pregnancies is found to be less dependent on global DNA methylation, rather than on aberrant miRNA biogenesis molecules. Among them, aberrant AGO2 expression due to hypermethylation of its promoter was evident. Along with other factors, aberrant AGO2 expression was observed to be associated with multiple defects in trophoblast differentiation through deregulation of miRNAs mediated mechanisms., Conclusion: These aberrant miRNA activities might be associated with genetic and epigenetic modifications in abnormal placentogenesis due to maldifferentiation of early trophoblast cell lineage in NT and IVP pregnancies. This study provides the first insight into genome wide miRNA expression, their role in regulation of trophoblast differentiation as well as abnormal placental development in Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer pregnancies to pave the way to improve the efficiency of cloning by nuclear transfer.