Role of non-structural protein 2 in the regulation of the replication of the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus in MARC-145 cells: effect of gene silencing and over expression.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is an economically important disease in swine-producing areas. Many vaccine strategies have been developed to control the disease, but none have yet been completely successful. The development of a cell line that can produce large yields of PRRSV vaccine is very necessary. In order to determine the role of Nsp2 in the replication of the highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (HP-PRRSV) in MARC-145 cells, we used an RNA interference-based short hairpin RNA of Nsp2 and constructed cell lines expressing the HP-PRRSV Nsp2 gene. Conserved HP-PRRSV Nsp2 sequences were used to design short interfering RNAs and test their ability to silence PRRSV transcript expression and replication in cells in vitro transfection. Nsp2, ORF7, and ß-actin mRNA expression were determined using semi-quantitative real-time PCR. Infection with siRNA targeting Nsp2 was found to reduce the Nsp2 expression in MARC-145 cells infected with PRRSV. Both MARC-145-TJ Nsp2 and MARC-145-TJM Nsp2 cell lines were screened by G418, which were infected with HP-PRRSV, normal MARC-145 cells for mock, and then virus titers were calculated by TCID(50) after the CPE showing up. The downregulation of Nsp2 induced a remarkable decrease in PRRSV replication, causing the reduction of structural protein. The Nsp2-targeted siRNA was found to downregulate the expression of Nsp2 in MARC-145 cells and inducing replication reduce of PRRSV in MARC-145 cells. The shRNA vectors S-1 and S-2 could effectively induce the inhibition of viral replication in MARC-145. Results showed that cells expressing the Nsp2 gene of the highly pathogenic PRRSV TJ and attenuated TJM remained stable. PRRSV replication was faster in these cells than in MARC-145 cells, especially during the early stage. This shows that Nsp2 plays a positive role in PRRSV proliferation.

Phylogenetic analysis of the bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 from cattle herds revealing the existence of a genotype A strain in China.

In 2009, a bovine parainfluenza virus (BPIV3), named as NM09, was isolated using MDBK cell culture from the nasal swabs of normal cattle in China. The NM09 isolate was characterized by RT-PCR and nucleotide sequence analysis. Its complete genome was 15,456 nucleotides in length. Similar to other sequenced PIV strains, the NM09 virus consisted of six non-overlapping genes, which were predicted to encode nine proteins with conserved and complementary 3' leader and 5' trailer regions, conserved gene starts, gene stops, and trinucleotide intergenic sequences. Nucleotide phylogenetic analysis of matrix and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase gene demonstrated that this NM09 isolate belonged to BPIV3 genotype A instead of the previously reported BPIV3 genotype C in China. It is implicated that the different genotypes A and C might coexist infection for a long time in China.

Pathogenesis and phylogenetic analyses of canine distemper virus strain ZJ7 isolate from domestic dogs in China.

A new isolate of canine distemper virus (CDV), named ZJ7, was isolated from lung tissues of a dog suspected with CDV infection using MDCK cells. The ZJ7 isolate induced cytopathogenic effects of syncytia in MDCK cell after six passages. In order to evaluate pathogenesis of ZJ7 strain, three CDV sero-negative dogs were intranasally inoculated with its virus suspension. All infected dogs developed clinical signs of severe bloody diarrhea, conjunctivitis, ocular discharge, nasal discharge and coughing, fever and weight loss at 21 dpi, whereas the mock group infected with DMEM were normal. The results demonstrated that CDV-ZJ7 strain isolated by MDCK cell was virulent, and the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of strain ZJ7 had no change after isolation by MDCK cell when compared with the original virus from the fresh tissues. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses for the nucleocapsid (N), phosphoprotein (P) and receptor binding haemagglutinin (H) gene of the ZJ7 isolate clearly showed it is joins to the Asia 1 group cluster of CDV strains, the predominant genotype in China.