Abstract
African swine fever (ASF) has emerged as a threat to swine production worldwide. Evasion of host immunity by ASF virus (ASFV) is well understood. However, the role of ASFV in triggering oncogenesis is still unclear. In the present study, ASFV-infected kidney tissue samples were subjected to Illumina-based transcriptome analysis. A total of 2463 upregulated and 825 downregulated genes were differentially expressed (p < 0.05). A literature review revealed that the majority of the differentially expressed host genes were key molecules in signaling pathways involved in oncogenesis. Bioinformatic analysis indicated the activation of certain oncogenic KEGG pathways, including basal cell carcinoma, breast cancer, transcriptional deregulation in cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Analysis of host-virus interactions revealed that the upregulated oncogenic RELA (p65 transcription factor) protein of Sus scrofa can interact with the A238L (hypothetical protein of unknown function) of ASFV. Differential expression of oncogenes was confirmed by qRT-PCR, using the H3 histone family 3A gene (H3F3A) as an internal control to confirm the RNA-Seq data. The levels of gene expression indicated by qRT-PCR matched closely to those determined through RNA-Seq. These findings open up new possibilities for investigation of the mechanisms underlying ASFV infection and offer insights into the dynamic interaction between viral infection and oncogenic processes. However, as these investigations were conducted on pigs that died from natural ASFV infection, the role of ASFV in oncogenesis still needs to be investigated in controlled experimental studies.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data that support this study will be shared upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
References
Aguero M, Fernandez J, Romero L, Sanchez MC, Arias M, Sanchez JMV (2003) Highly sensitive PCR assay for routine diagnosis of African swine fever virus in clinical samples. J Clin Microbiol 41:4431–4434
Akter KA, Mansour MA, Hyodo T, Senga T (2017) FAM98A associates with DDX1-C14orf166-FAM98B in a novel complex involved in colorectal cancer progression. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 84:1–13
Ando T, Ishiguro H, Kuwabara Y, Kimura M, Mitsui A, Kurehara H et al (2006) Expression of ACP6 is an independent prognostic factor for poor survival in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Oncol Rep 15(6):1551–1555
Avagyan HR, Hakobyan SA, Poghosyan AA, Bayramyan NV, Arzumanyan HH, Abroyan LO, Avetisyan AS, Hakobyan LA, Karalova EM, Karalyan ZA (2022) African swine fever virus manipulates the cell cycle of g0-infected cells to access cellular nucleotides. Viruses 14(8):1593
Bancroft JD, Gamble M (eds) (2008) Theory and practice of histological techniques. Elsevier Health Sciences
Baylis SA, Banham AH, Vydelingum S, Dixon LK, Smith GL (1993) African swine fever virus encodes a serine protein kinase which is packaged into virions. J Virol 67(8):4549–4556
Bian H, Zhou Y, Zhou D, Zhang Y, Shang D, Qi J (2019) The latest progress on miR-374 and its functional implications in physiological and pathological processes. J Cell Mol Med 23(5):3063–3076
Buchholz M, Honstein T, Kirchhoff S, Kreider R, Schmidt H, Sipos B et al (2015) A multistep high-content screening approach to identify novel functionally relevant target genes in pancreatic cancer. PLoS ONE 10:e122946
Chatterji P, Rustgi AK (2018) RNA binding proteins in intestinal epithelial biology and colorectal cancer. Trends Mol Med 24(5):490–506
Chryplewicz A, Tienda SM, Nahotko DA, Peters PN, Lengyel E, Eckert MA (2019) Mutant p53 regulates LPA signaling through lysophosphatidic acid phosphatase type 6. Sci Rep 9(1):5195
Culling C, Reid P, Clay M, Dunn WJ (1974) The histochemical demonstration of O-acylated sialic acid in gastrointestinal mucins their association with the potassium hydroxide-periodic acid-schiff effect. J Histochem Cytochem 22:826–831
Deb R, Sonowal J, Sengar GS, Pegu SR, Praharaj MR, Malla WA, Singh I, Yadav AK, Rajkhowa S, Das PJ, Bharati J, Paul S, Gupta VK (2022) Porcine Circovirus type 2 infected myocardial tissue transcriptome signature. Gene 20(836):146670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2022.146670
Dixon LK, Islam M, Nash R, Reis AL (2019) African swine fever virus evasion of host defences. Virus Res 266:25–33
Enjuanes L, Cubero I, Vinuela E (1977) Sensitivity of macrophages from different species to African swine fever (ASF) virus. J Gen Virol 34:455–463
Fraczyk M, Wozniakowski G, Kowalczyk A, Bocian L, Kozak E, Niemczuk K, Pejsak Z (2016) Evolution of African swine fever virus genes related to evasion of host immune response. Vet Microbiol 193:133–144
Gao L, Xiong DD, Yang X, Li JD, He RQ, Huang ZG, Lai ZF, Liu LM, Luo JY, Du XF, Zeng JH (2022) The expression characteristics and clinical significance of ACP6, a potential target of nitidine chloride, in hepatocellular carcinoma. BMC Cancer 22(1):1–14
Garcia-Belmonte R, Perez-Nunez D, Pittau M, Richt JA, Revilla Y (2019) African swine fever virus Armenia/07 virulent strain controls interferon beta production through the cGAS-STING pathway. J Virol 93:e02298-e2318
Golipour A, Myers D, Seagroves T, Murphy D, Evan GI, Donoghue DJ, Moorehead RA, Porter LA (2008) The Spy1/RINGO family represents a novel mechanism regulating mammary growth and tumorigenesis. Can Res 68(10):3591–3600
Granja AG, Nogal ML, Hurtado C, Salas J, Salas ML, Carrascosa AL, Revilla Y (2004) Modulation of p53 cellular function and cell death by African swine fever virus. J Virol 78(13):7165–7174
He X, Gan F, Lin Y, Liu G, Lin Y, Chen D (2022) MAIP1-related tumor immune infiltration: as a potential prognostic biomarker for esophageal cancer. J Immunol Res 2022:1–12
Horie C, Zhu C, Yamaguchi K, Nakagawa S, Isobe Y, Takane K, Ikenoue T, Ohta Y, Tanaka Y, Aikou S, Tsurita G (2022) Motile sperm domain containing 1 is upregulated by the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in colorectal cancer. Oncol Lett 24(2):1–8
Huang Y, Fang C, Shi JW, Wen Y, Liu D (2017) Identification of hMex-3A and its effect on human bladder cancer cell proliferation. Oncotarget 8(37):61215
ICAR Annual Report (2022-23) Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture& Farmers Welfare, Government of India. https://icar.org.in/sites/default/files/ICAR-Annual-Report-2022-23
Jasinski-Bergner S, Steven A, Seliger B (2020) The role of the RNA-binding protein family MEX-3 in tumorigenesis. Int J Mol Sci 21(15):5209
Jiang H, Zhang X, Luo J, Dong C, Xue J, Wei W, Chen J, Zhou J, Gao Y, Yang C (2012) Knockdown of hMex-3A by small RNA interference suppresses cell proliferation and migration in human gastric cancer cells. Mol Med Rep 6(3):575–580
Jie Y, Liu Y, Chang H, Zhao G (2017) Molecular characterization, sequence analysis and tissue expression of a porcine gene–MOSPD2. Biotechnol Biotechnol Equip 31(1):99–104
King DW, Steinmetz R, Wagoner HA, Hannon TS, Chen LY, Eugster EA et al (2003) Differential expression of GRK isoforms in nonmalignant and malignant human granulosa cells. Endocrine 22:135–142
König T, Tröder SE, Bakka K, Korwitz A, Richter-Dennerlein R, Lampe PA, Patron M, Mühlmeister M, Guerrero-Castillo S, Brandt U, Decker T (2016) The m-AAA protease associated with neurodegeneration limits MCU activity in mitochondria. Mol Cell 64(1):148–162
Krebs DL, Hilton DJ (2001) SOCS proteins: negative regulators of cytokine signaling. Stem Cells 19:378–387
Lang L, Teng Y (2019) Fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 targeting in cancer: new insights into mechanisms and therapeutic strategies. Cells 8:31
Li W, Ai N, Wang S, Bhattacharya N, Vrbanac V, Collins M et al (2014) GRK3 is essential for metastatic cells and promotes prostate tumor progression. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111:1521–1526
Li Y, Zhao JJ, Li N, Shi Z, Cheng D, Zhu QH, Tu C, Tong GZ, Qiu HJ (2007) A multiplex nested RT-PCR for the detection and differentiation of wild-type viruses from C-strain vaccine of classical swine fever virus. J Virol Methods 143(1):16–22
Lim EC, Lim SW, Tan KJ, Sathiya M, Cheng WH, Lai KS, Loh JY, Yap WS (2022) In-Silico analysis of deleterious SNPs of FGF4 gene and their impacts on protein structure function and bladder cancer prognosis. Life 12(7):1018
Lin J, Deng Z, Tanikawa C, Shuin T, Miki T, Matsuda K, Nakamura Y (2014) Downregulation of the tumor suppressor HSPB7, involved in the p53 pathway, in renal cell carcinoma by hypermethylation. Int J Oncol 44(5):1490–1498
Liu GQ, Huang HX, Han DD, Cao LH, Ji GQ, Yu L (2013) A preliminary study on human mitochondrial protein coding gene C 2ORF47 in cell proliferation and apoptosis. J Fudan Univ (Natl Sci) 52(4):452–459
Liu X, Zhang W, Geng D, He J, Zhao Y, Yu L (2014) Clinical significance of fibroblast growth factor receptor-3 mutations in bladder cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Genet Mol Res 13:1109–1120
Liu Y, An S, Ward R, Yang Y, Guo XX, Li W, Xu TR (2016) G protein-coupled receptors as promising cancer targets. Cancer Lett 376(2):226–239
Liu Y, Zhang B, Kuang H, Korakavi G, Lu LY, Yu X (2016) Zinc finger protein 618 regulates the function of UHRF2 (ubiquitin-like with PHD and ring finger domains 2) as a specific 5-hydroxymethylcytosine reader. J Biol Chem 291(26):13679–13688. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M116.717314
Liu Y, Xia J, McKay J, Tsavachidis S, Xiao X, Spitz MR, Cheng C, Byun J, Hong W, Li Y, Zhu D (2021) Rare deleterious germline variants and risk of lung cancer. NPJ Precis Oncol 5(1):12
Ma Y, Han CC, Huang Q, Sun WY, Wei W (2016) GRK2 overexpression inhibits IGF1-induced proliferation and migration of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells by downregulating EGR1. Oncol Rep 35:3068–3074
Mallela K, Shivananda S, Gopinath KS, Kumar A (2021) Oncogenic role of MiR-130a in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Sci Rep 11(1):1–13
Martens N, Uzan G, Wery M, Hooqhe R, Hooqhe-Peters EL, Gertler A (2005) Suppressor of cytokine signaling 7 inhibits prolactin, growth hormone, and leptin signaling by interacting with STAT5 or STAT3 and attenuating their nuclear translocation. J Biol Chem 280:13817–13823
Mazur-Panasiuk N, Zmudzki J, Wozniakowski G (2019) African swine fever virus—persistence in different environmental conditions and the possibility of its indirect transmission. J Vet Res 63:303–310
Metaye T, Levillain P, Kraimps JL, Perdrisot R (2008) Immunohistochemical detection, regulation and antiproliferative function of G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 in thyroid carcinomas. J Endocrinol 198:101–110. https://doi.org/10.1677/JOE-07-0562
Nogal ML, Gonzalez de Buitrago G, Rodriguez C, Cubelos B, Carrascosa AL, Salas ML, Revilla Y (2001) African swine fever virus IAP homologue inhibits caspase activation and promotes cell survival in mammalian cells. J Virol 75:2535–2543
Noguchi S, Yamada N, Kumazaki M, Yasui Y, Iwasaki J, Naito S, Akao Y (2013) socs7, a target gene of microRNA-145, regulates interferon-β induction through STAT3 nuclear translocation in bladder cancer cells. Cell Death Dis 4(2):e482–e482
Nogues L, Reglero C, Rivas V, Salcedo A, Lafarga V, Neves M et al (2016) G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) promotes breast tumorigenesis through a HDAC6-Pin1 axis. EBioMedicine 13:132–145
Pegu SR, Deb R, Das PJ, Sengar GS, Yadav AK, Rajkhowa S, Paul S, Gupta VK (2022) Development of multiplex PCR assay for simultaneous detection of African swine fever, porcine circo and porcine parvo viral infection from clinical samples. Anim Biotechnol 34:1–8
Pichler G, Wolf P, Schmidt CS, Meilinger D, Schneider K, Frauer C, Fellinger K, Rottach A, Leonhardt H (2011) Cooperative DNA and histone binding by Uhrf2 links the two major repressive epigenetic pathways. J Cell Biochem 112:2585–2593
Pikalo J, Zani L, Huehr J, Beer M, Biome S (2019) Pathogenesis of African swine fever in domestic pigs and European wild boar—lessons learned from recent animal trials. Virus Res 271:197614
Pitcher JA, Freedman NJ, Lefkowitz RJ (1998) G protein-coupled receptor kinases. Annu Rev Biochem 67:653–692
Polyak K, Xia Y, Zweier JL, Kinzler KW, Vogelstein B (1997) A model for p53-induced apoptosis. Nature 389:300–305
Qiu Y, Meng M, Cao C, Zhang J, Cheng X, Huang Y, Cao H, Li Y, Tian D, Huang Y, Peng L (2022) RNA-binding protein MEX3A controls G1/S transition via regulating the RB/E2F pathway in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids 27:241–255
Raghuwanshi SK, Smith N, Rivers EJ, Thomas AJ, Sutton N, Hu Y et al (2013) G protein-coupled receptor kinase 6 deficiency promotes angiogenesis, tumor progression, and metastasis. J Immunol 190:5329–5336
Ramachandran C, Rodriguez S, Ramachandran R, Nair PR, Fonseca H, Khatib Z, Escalon E, Melnick SJ (2005) Expression profiles of apoptotic genes induced by curcumin in human breast cancer and mammary epithelial cell lines. Anticancer Res 25(5):3293–3302
Ramirez-Medina E, Vuono E, Pruitt S, Rai A, Espinoza N, Valladares A, Spinard E, Silva E, Velazquez-Salinas L, Gladue DP, Borca MV (2022) ASFV gene A151R is involved in the process of virulence in domestic swine. Viruses 14(8):1834
Rao X, Huang X, Zhou Z, Lin X (2013) An improvement of the 2^(-delta delta CT) method for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction data analysis. Biostat Bioinform Biomath. 3(3):71–85 (PMID: 25558171; PMCID: PMC4280562)
Richardson AL, Wang ZC, De Nicolo A, Lu X, Brown M, Miron A, Liao X, Iglehart JD, Livingston DM, Ganesan S (2006) X chromosomal abnormalities in basal-like human breast cancer. Cancer Cell 9(2):121–132
Senthilkumar D, Rajukumar K, Venkatesh G, Singh F, Tosh C, Kombiah S, Dubey CK, Chakravarty A, Barman NN, Singh VP (2022) Complete genome analysis of African swine fever virus isolated from domestic pigs during the first ASF outbreaks in India. Transbound Emerg Dis 69(5):e2020–e2027. https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14536
Shao L, Wang J, Karatas O, Ittmann M (2021) MEX3D is an oncogenic driver in prostate cancer. Prostate 81(15):1202–1213
Shi JW, Huang Y (2017) Mex3a expression and survival analysis of bladder urothelial carcinoma. Oncotarget 8(33):54764–54774
Sun WY, Wu JJ, Peng WT, Sun JC, Wei W (2018) The role of G protein-coupled receptor kinases in the pathology of malignant tumors. Acta Pharmacol Sin 39(11):1699–1705
Turner N, Grose R (2010) Fibroblast growth factor signalling: from development to cancer. Nat Rev Cancer 10:116–129. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc2780
Wernike K, Hoffmann B, Dauber M, Lange E, Schirrmeier H, Beer M (2012) Detection and typing of highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus by multiplex real-time rt-PCR. PLoS ONE 7(6):e38251
Weichert W, Boehm M, Gekeler V, Bahra M, Langrehr J, Neuhaus P, Denkert C, Imre G, Weller C, Hofmann HP, Niesporek S (2007) High expression of RelA/p65 is associated with activation of nuclear factor-κB-dependent signaling in pancreatic cancer and marks a patient population with poor prognosis. Br J Cancer 97(4):523–530
Wu CC, Tsai FM, Shyu RY, Tsai YM, Wang CH, Jiang SY (2011) G protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 mediates Tazarotene-induced gene 1-induced growth suppression of human colon cancer cells. BMC Cancer 11:175
Wu Y, Liu XM, Wang XJ, Zhang Y, Liang XQ, Cao EH (2009) PIG11 is involved in hepatocellular carcinogenesis and its over-expression promotes Hepg2 cell apoptosis. Pathol Oncol Res` 15:411–416
Yang J, Chatterjee-Kishore M, Staugaitis SM, Nguyen H, Schlessinger K, Levy DE et al (2005) Novel roles of unphosphorylated STAT3 in oncogenesis and transcriptional regulation. Cancer Res 65:939–947
Yang B, Shen C, Zhang D, Zhang T, Shi X, Yang J, Hao Y, Zhao D, Cui H, Yuan X, Chen X (2021) Mechanism of interaction between virus and host is inferred from the changes of gene expression in macrophages infected with African swine fever virus CN/GS/2018 strain. Virol J 18:1–16
Yu HG, Yu LL, Yang Y, Luo HS, Yu JP, Meier JJ, Schrader H, Bastian A, Schmidt WE, Schmitz F (2003) Increased expression of RelA/nuclear factor-κB protein correlates with colorectal tumorigenesis. Oncology 65(1):37–45
Zhang J, Gao Q, Li P, Liu X, Jia Y, Wu W, Li J, Dong S, Koseki H, Wong J (2011) S phase-dependent interaction with DNMT1 dictates the role of UHRF1 but not UHRF2 in DNA methylation maintenance. Cell Res 21:1723–1739
Zhang J, Tang Z, Wang N, Long L, Li KJD, c. biology, (2012) Evaluating a set of reference genes for expression normalization in multiple tissues and skeletal muscle at different development stages in pigs using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. DNA Cell Biol 31:106–113
Zhang M, Cao L, Hou G, Lv X, Deng J (2022) Investigation of the potential correlation between RNA-binding proteins in the evolutionarily conserved MEX3 family and non-small-cell lung cancer. Mol Biotechnol 65:1–12
Zhang Y, Li Y, Guan Z, Yang Y, Zhang J, Sun Q, Li B, Qiu Y, Liu K, Shao D, Ma Z (2022) Rapid differential detection of Japanese encephalitis virus and Getah virus in pigs or mosquitos by a duplex TaqMan real-time RT-PCR assay. Front Vet Sci 9:437
Zhao Q, Li T, Qi J, Liu J, Qin C (2014) The miR-545/374a cluster encoded in the Ftx lncRNA is overexpressed in HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma and promotes tumorigenesis and tumor progression. PLoS ONE 9(10):e109782
Zheng R, Liu Q, Wang T, Wang L, Zhang Y (2018) FAM98A promotes proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer cells via the P38-ATF2 signaling pathway. Cancer Manag Res 10:2269
Zheng Z, Chen X, Cai X, Lin H, Xu J, Cheng X (2022) RNA-binding protein MEX3D promotes cervical carcinoma tumorigenesis by destabilizing TSC22D1 mRNA. Cell Death Discov 8(1):250
Zhou T, Cheng X, Ke Z, Ma Q, Xiang J, Gao M, Huang Y, Su Z (2023) Molecular mechanism of CCDC106 regulating the p53-Mdm2/MdmX signal axis. Res Sq. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2619337/v
Zhu J, Ramanathan P, Bishop E, O’Donnell V, Gladue D, Borca M (2019) Mechanisms of African swine fever virus pathogenesis and immune evasion inferred from gene expression changes in infected swine macrophages. PLoS ONE 14:e0223955
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Director of the ICAR-National Research Centre on Pig in Guwahati, Assam, India, for providing the essential facilities for the current study. The authors are grateful to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in New Delhi for providing funding for Illumina high-throughput transcriptome sequencing. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India (BT/PR46409/AAQ/1/852/2022), for providing partial financial assistance. Mr. Bimal Rajbangshi, Field Assistant, deserves special recognition for his assistance with sample collecting and processing.
Funding
This study is funded by Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India (BT/PR46409/AAQ/1/852/2022).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
RD and VKG: design of the concept. NA and SRP: sample collection and processing. GSS, RD, SRP, PJD: wet lab work. IS and JS: dry lab work. RD, SC, AS and NA: manuscript drafting. JS, SC, SR and VK: proofreading of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical statement
Tissue samples were collected with the approval of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) with the approval code no. NRCP/IAEC/1658/2023-24/90, dated 25-04-2023.
Additional information
Handling Editor: William G Dundon .
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Deb, R., Sengar, G.S., Sonowal, J. et al. Transcriptome signatures of host tissue infected with African swine fever virus reveal differential expression of associated oncogenes. Arch Virol 169, 54 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-023-05959-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-023-05959-4