Newhouse Daniel J, Hofmeister Erik K, Balakrishnan Christopher N
Department of Biology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA.
US Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, 6006 Schroeder Road, Madison, WI 53711, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2017 Jun 28;4(6):170296. doi: 10.1098/rsos.170296. eCollection 2017 Jun.
West Nile virus (WNV) is a widespread arbovirus that imposes a significant cost to both human and wildlife health. WNV exists in a bird-mosquito transmission cycle in which passerine birds act as the primary reservoir host. As a public health concern, the mammalian immune response to WNV has been studied in detail. Little, however, is known about the avian immune response to WNV. Avian taxa show variable susceptibility to WNV and what drives this variation is unknown. Thus, to study the immune response to WNV in birds, we experimentally infected captive zebra finches (). Zebra finches provide a useful model, as like many natural avian hosts they are moderately susceptible to WNV and thus provide sufficient viremia to infect mosquitoes. We performed RNAseq in spleen tissue during peak viremia to provide an overview of the transcriptional response. In general, we find strong parallels with the mammalian immune response to WNV, including upregulation of five genes in the Rig-I-like receptor signalling pathway, and offer insights into avian-specific responses. Together with complementary immunological assays, we provide a model of the avian immune response to WNV and set the stage for future comparative studies among variably susceptible populations and species.
西尼罗河病毒（WNV）是一种广泛传播的虫媒病毒，给人类和野生动物健康都带来了巨大损失。WNV存在于鸟类-蚊子传播循环中，其中雀形目鸟类是主要的储存宿主。作为一个公共卫生问题，人们已经对哺乳动物对WNV的免疫反应进行了详细研究。然而，关于鸟类对WNV的免疫反应却知之甚少。鸟类分类群对WNV的易感性各不相同，而导致这种差异的原因尚不清楚。因此，为了研究鸟类对WNV的免疫反应，我们对圈养的斑胸草雀进行了实验性感染（）。斑胸草雀提供了一个有用的模型，因为像许多天然鸟类宿主一样，它们对WNV有中度易感性，因此能产生足够的病毒血症来感染蚊子。我们在病毒血症高峰期对脾脏组织进行了RNA测序，以概述转录反应。总的来说，我们发现它与哺乳动物对WNV的免疫反应有很强的相似性，包括RIG-I样受体信号通路中五个基因的上调，并对鸟类特异性反应提供了见解。结合补充性免疫分析，我们提供了一个鸟类对WNV免疫反应的模型，并为未来在易感性不同的种群和物种之间进行比较研究奠定了基础。
