Metabolomic profiling of Marek's disease virus infection in host cell based on untargeted LC-MS

Qingsen Wang; Bin Shi; Guifu Yang; Xueying Zhu; Hongxia Shao; Kun Qian; Jianqiang Ye; Aijian Qin

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1270762

Metabolomic profiling of Marek's disease virus infection in host cell based on untargeted LC-MS

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 9:14:1270762. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1270762. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Qingsen Wang^{1

2

3}, Bin Shi^{1

2

3}, Guifu Yang^{1

2

3}, Xueying Zhu^{1

2

3}, Hongxia Shao^{1

2

3}, Kun Qian^{1

2

3}, Jianqiang Ye^{1

2

3}, Aijian Qin^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ The International Joint Laboratory for Cooperation in Agriculture and Agricultural Product Safety, Ministry of Education, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China.
² Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China.
³ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Zoonosis, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China.

Abstract

Marek's disease (MD) caused by Marek's disease virus (MDV), poses a serious threat to the poultry industry by inducing neurological disease and malignant lymphoma in infected chickens. However, the underlying mechanisms how MDV disrupts host cells and causes damage still remain elusive. Recently, the application of metabolomics has shown great potential for uncovering the complex mechanisms during virus-host interactions. In this study, chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEFs) infected with MDV were subjected to ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) and multivariate statistical analysis. The results showed that 261 metabolites were significantly altered upon MDV infection, with most changes occurring in amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, and lipid metabolism. Notably, MDV infection induces an up-regulation of amino acids in host cells during the early stages of infection to provide the energy and intermediary metabolites necessary for efficient multiplication of its own replication. Taken together, these data not only hold promise in identifying the biochemical molecules utilized by MDV replication in host cells, but also provides a new insight into understanding MDV-host interactions.

Keywords: CEFs; LC-MS; Marek’s disease virus; amino acid; metabolites; the TCA cycle.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This project was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (31972717 and 31761133002), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, the Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for the Prevention, and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses.