Synergistic effect of the responses of different tissues against African swine fever virus

Abstract

African swine fever is an acute, haemorrhagic fever and contagious disease of pigs caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV), which has a great impact on the pig farming industry and related international trade. Understanding the response processes of various tissues in pigs after ASFV infection may help to address current major concerns, such as the exploration of key genes for vaccine development, the cooperative mechanism of the host response and the possibility of establishing active herd immunity. ASFV is able to infect core tissues and is associated with acute death. RNA and protein samples were obtained and verified from five tissues, including the lung, spleen, liver, kidney and lymph nodes. Multiple duplicate samples were quantitatively analyzed by corresponding transcriptomic and proteomic comparison. The results showed that different tissues cooperated in responses to ASFV infection and coordinated the defence against ASFV in the form of an inflammatory cytokine storm and interferon activation. The lung and spleen were mainly involved (dominant) in the innate immune response pathway; the liver and kidney were involved in the metabolic regulatory pathway and the inflammatory response; and the lymph nodes cooperated with the liver to complete energy metabolism regulation. The key pathways and responsive genes in each tissue of the contracted pigs were comprehensively mapped by infectomics, providing further evidence to investigate the complicated tie between ASFV and host cells.