Zika virus dysregulates the expression of astrocytic genes involved in neurodevelopment

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021 Apr 23;15(4):e0009362. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0009362. eCollection 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a kind of flavivirus emerged in French Polynesia and Brazil, and has led to a worldwide public health concern since 2016. ZIKV infection causes various neurological conditions, which are associated with fetus brain development or peripheral and central nervous systems (PNS/CNS) functional problems. To date, no vaccine or any specific antiviral therapy against ZIKV infection are available. It urgently needs efforts to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms of ZIKV-induced neural pathogenesis. ZIKV favorably infects neural and glial cells specifically astrocytes, consequently dysregulating gene expression and pathways with impairment of process neural cells. In this study, we applied a model for ZIKV replication in mouse primary astrocytes (MPAs) and profiled temporal alterations in the host transcriptomes upon ZIKV infection. Among the RNA-sequencing data of 27,812 genes, we examined 710 genes were significantly differentially expressed by ZIKV, which lead to dysregulation of numerous functions including neurons development and migration, glial cells differentiation, myelinations, astrocytes projection, neurogenesis, and brain development, along with multiple pathways including Hippo signaling pathway, tight junction, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and focal adhesion. Furthermore, we confirmed the dysregulation of the selected genes in MPAs and human astroglioma U251 cells. We found that PTBP1, LIF, GHR, and PTBP3 were upregulated while EDNRB and MBP were downregulated upon ZIKV infection. The current study highlights the ZIKV-mediated potential genes associated with neurodevelopment or related diseases.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Astrocytes / metabolism*
  • Astrocytes / pathology
  • Astrocytes / virology*
  • Brain / pathology*
  • Cell Line
  • Gene Expression
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Neurogenesis / genetics*
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / metabolism
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA
  • Signal Transduction
  • Transcriptome
  • Up-Regulation
  • Virus Replication
  • Zika Virus / pathogenicity*
  • Zika Virus / physiology

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81730061 to JW; 32070148 and 31800147 to ZL) (https://isisn.nsfc.gov.cn/egrantweb/), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2019A1515011073 to ZL).(https://pro.gdstc.gov.cn/egrantweb/), Open Research Fund Program of the State Key Laboratory of Virology of China (2021KF001 to ZL) (http://klv.whu.edu.cn/), and National Mega Project on Major Infectious Disease Prevention under Grant (2017ZX10103005 to FL) (https://isisn.nsfc.gov.cn/egrantweb/). The funders play no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.