Understanding pathogen-host interplay by expression profiles of lncRNA and mRNA in the liver of Echinococcus multilocularis-infected mice

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 May 31;16(5):e0010435. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010435. eCollection 2022 May.

Abstract

Almost all Echinococcus multilocularis (Em) infections occur in the liver of the intermediate host, causing a lethal zoonotic helminthic disease, alveolar echinococcosis (AE). However, the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) expression profiles of the host and the potential regulatory function of lncRNA during Em infection are poorly understood. In this study, the profiles of lncRNAs and mRNAs in the liver of mice at different time points after Em infection were explored by microarray. Thirty-one differentially expressed mRNAs (DEMs) and 68 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs) were found continuously dysregulated. These DEMs were notably enriched in "antigen processing and presentation", "Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation" and "Th17 cell differentiation" pathways. The potential predicted function of DELs revealed that most DELs might influence Th17 cell differentiation and TGF-β/Smad pathway of host by trans-regulating SMAD3, STAT1, and early growth response (EGR) genes. At 30 days post-infection (dpi), up-regulated DEMs were enriched in Toll-like and RIG-I-like receptor signaling pathways, which were validated by qRT-PCR, Western blotting and downstream cytokines detection. Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis and serum levels of the corresponding cytokines confirmed the changes in cell-mediated immunity in host during Em infection that showed Th1 and Th17-type CD4+ T-cells were predominant at the early infection stage whereas Th2-type CD4+ T-cells were significantly higher at the middle/late stage. Collectively, our study revealed the potential regulatory functions of lncRNAs in modulating host Th cell subsets and provide novel clues in understanding the influence of Em infection on host innate and adaptive immune response.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cytokines / metabolism
  • Echinococcosis
  • Echinococcus multilocularis*
  • Liver / metabolism
  • Mice
  • RNA, Long Noncoding* / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics

Substances

  • Cytokines
  • RNA, Long Noncoding
  • RNA, Messenger

Supplementary concepts

  • Alveolar echinococcosis

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Plan (Grant number:2017YFD0501301; Grant number:2018YFC1602504), Central Public-Interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (Grant number:1610312020016), and Cultivation of Achievements of State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology (Grant number:SKLVEB2020CGPY01). All these fundings were received by WJ. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.