Li Yanwei, Tu Teng, Luo Yan, Yao Xueping, Yang Zexiao, Wang Yin
Key Laboratory of Animal Diseases and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.
Viruses. 2025 Apr 17;17(4):580. doi: 10.3390/v17040580.
Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is a pathogen that causes severe neurological dysfunction in the host, leading to extensive neuronal damage and inflammation. Despite extensive research on the neuropathogenesis of α-herpesvirus infections, many scientific questions remain unresolved, such as the largely unknown functions of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in herpesvirus-infected nervous systems. To address these questions, we used RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to investigate the expression profiles of lncRNAs and mRNAs in the brains of mice infected with PRV. Through bioinformatic analysis, we identified 316 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 886 differentially expressed mRNAs. We predicted the biological functions of these differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs using the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases, and the results showed that the differentially expressed transcripts were mainly involved in the innate immune response. Finally, we validated the differential expression trends of lncRNAs and mRNAs using quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR), which were consistent with the sequencing data. To our knowledge, this is the first report analyzing the lncRNA expression profile in the central nervous system (CNS) of mice infected with PRV. Our findings provide new insights into the roles of lncRNAs and mRNAs during PRV infection of the host CNS.
伪狂犬病病毒（PRV）是一种可导致宿主严重神经功能障碍的病原体，会引发广泛的神经元损伤和炎症。尽管对α-疱疹病毒感染的神经发病机制进行了广泛研究，但许多科学问题仍未解决，例如长链非编码RNA（lncRNA）在疱疹病毒感染的神经系统中的功能在很大程度上仍不清楚。为了解决这些问题，我们使用RNA测序（RNA-seq）来研究感染PRV的小鼠大脑中lncRNA和mRNA的表达谱。通过生物信息学分析，我们鉴定出316个差异表达的lncRNA和886个差异表达的mRNA。我们使用基因本体论（GO）和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）数据库预测了这些差异表达的lncRNA和mRNA的生物学功能，结果表明差异表达的转录本主要参与先天免疫反应。最后，我们使用定量实时PCR（q-PCR）验证了lncRNA和mRNA的差异表达趋势，其与测序数据一致。据我们所知，这是第一份分析感染PRV的小鼠中枢神经系统（CNS）中lncRNA表达谱的报告。我们的研究结果为lncRNA和mRNA在宿主CNS感染PRV过程中的作用提供了新的见解。
