Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Virology, College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha, China.
GMU-GIBH Joint School of Life Sciences, The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Joint Laboratory for Cell Fate Regulation and Diseases, Guangzhou National Laboratory, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2024 Oct 24;14:1484529. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1484529. eCollection 2024.
This study aimed to investigate the virome diversity of the SLE disease and the association between viral infections and the disease.
SLE-related RNA-Seq data were retrieved from public databases. A rigorous computational workflow was employed to identify the human viruses. Differential expression analysis and functional enrichment analysis were conducted in R.
We identified ten human virus species from 826 RNA-Seq samples of human blood, comprising 688 SLE patients and 138 healthy controls. Eight of the ten virus species exhibited higher positive rates in SLE patients compared to healthy controls, with Human betaherpesvirus 5 (HHV5) having the highest positive rate (4.1%) and being exclusively detected in SLE samples. The virus abundances were low and comparable in both SLE patients and healthy controls. Analysis of the antiviral interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) in samples showed higher ISG expression levels in HHV4 and HHV5-positive samples compared to virus-negative samples. Several genes that were up-regulated in SLE patients were further up-regulated after HHV5 infection, and they were mainly enriched in immune response-related biological processes. Additionally, the expression levels of several marker genes of SLE severity were compared between HHV5-positive and virus-negative SLE patients, suggesting that HHV5 infection may be associated with aggravated SLE disease.
We found that SLE patients are more susceptible to viral infections than healthy individuals. Viral infections, such as HHV5, may be associated with aggravated SLE disease. This study deepens our understanding of the association between viruses and SLE and provides new insights into prevention and control of the disease.
本研究旨在探究系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）疾病中的病毒组多样性，以及病毒感染与该疾病之间的关联。
从公共数据库中检索与 SLE 相关的 RNA-Seq 数据。采用严格的计算工作流程来识别人类病毒。在 R 中进行差异表达分析和功能富集分析。
我们从 826 个人类血液的 RNA-Seq 样本中鉴定出了十种人类病毒，其中包括 688 名 SLE 患者和 138 名健康对照者。在 SLE 患者中，有八种病毒的阳性率高于健康对照组，其中人类疱疹病毒 5（HHV5）的阳性率最高（4.1%），且仅在 SLE 样本中检测到。病毒丰度在 SLE 患者和健康对照者中均较低且相似。对样本中抗病毒干扰素刺激基因（ISGs）的分析表明，在 HHV4 和 HHV5 阳性样本中，ISG 的表达水平高于病毒阴性样本。SLE 患者中上调的几个基因在 HHV5 感染后进一步上调，它们主要富集在免疫反应相关的生物学过程中。此外，还比较了 HHV5 阳性和病毒阴性 SLE 患者中几个 SLE 严重程度标记基因的表达水平，表明 HHV5 感染可能与 SLE 疾病的加重有关。
我们发现 SLE 患者比健康个体更容易受到病毒感染。HHV5 等病毒感染可能与 SLE 疾病的加重有关。本研究加深了我们对病毒与 SLE 之间关联的理解，并为该疾病的预防和控制提供了新的思路。
