In Vitro Characterization of chIFITMs of Aseel and Kadaknath Chicken Breeds against Newcastle Disease Virus Infection

Muthusamy Malarmathi; Nagarajan Murali; Mani Selvaraju; Karuppusamy Sivakumar; Vasudevan Gowthaman; Vadivel Balasubramanian Raghavendran; Angamuthu Raja; Sunday O Peters; Aranganoor Kannan Thiruvenkadan

doi:10.3390/biology12070919

In Vitro Characterization of chIFITMs of Aseel and Kadaknath Chicken Breeds against Newcastle Disease Virus Infection

Biology (Basel). 2023 Jun 27;12(7):919. doi: 10.3390/biology12070919.

Authors

Muthusamy Malarmathi¹, Nagarajan Murali¹, Mani Selvaraju¹, Karuppusamy Sivakumar², Vasudevan Gowthaman³, Vadivel Balasubramanian Raghavendran¹, Angamuthu Raja¹, Sunday O Peters⁴, Aranganoor Kannan Thiruvenkadan⁵

Affiliations

¹ Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Namakkal 637 002, India.
² Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine 999183, Trinidad and Tobago.
³ Poultry Disease Diagnosis and Surveillance Laboratory, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Namakkal 637 002, India.
⁴ Department of Animal Science, Berry College, Mount Berry, GA 30149, USA.
⁵ Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Salem 636 112, India.

Abstract

Newcastle disease (ND) is highly contagious and usually causes severe illness that affects Aves all over the world, including domestic poultry. Depending on the virus's virulence, it can impact the nervous, respiratory, and digestive systems and cause up to 100% mortality. The chIFITM genes are activated in response to viral infection. The current study was conducted to quantify the mRNA of chIFITM genes in vitro in response to ND viral infection. It also examined its ability to inhibit ND virus replication in chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells of the Aseel and Kadaknath breeds. Results from the study showed that the expression of all chIFITM genes was significantly upregulated throughout the period in the infected CEF cells of both breeds compared to uninfected CEF cells. In CEF cells of the Kadaknath breed, elevated levels of expression of the chIFITM3 gene dramatically reduced ND viral growth, and the viral load was 60% lower than in CEF cells of the Aseel breed. The expression level of the chIFITMs in Kadaknath ranged from 2.39 to 11.68 log₂ folds higher than that of control CEFs and was consistently (p < 0.01) higher than Aseel CEFs. Similar to this, theIFN-γ gene expresses strongly quickly and peaks at 13.9 log₂ fold at 48 hpi. Based on these cellular experiments, the Kadaknath breed exhibits the potential for greater disease tolerance than Aseel. However, to gain a comprehensive understanding of disease resistance mechanisms in chickens, further research involving in vivo investigations is crucial.

Keywords: Aseel; CEF; IFITM gene; ISG; Kadaknath; Mx; Newcastle disease; interferon; viral load.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by TANUVAS, India. (USO No. 20652/A1/2020 and No. 273/A1/2021, dated 26 February 2021, of the Registrar, TANUVAS, Chennai—51, India).