Abstract
Each year, there are estimated to be approximately 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths due to influenza in the United States. Reports have indicated that most deaths are not directly due to influenza virus, but to secondary bacterial pneumonia, predominantly staphylococcal in origin. Here we identify the presence of candidate blood and urine biomarkers in mice with
Keywords
Introduction
Influenza has long been recognized as a major cause of illness worldwide and is generally characterized by fever, myalgia and respiratory symptoms.
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While infection is usually resolved inconsequentially, current estimates indicate that influenza is responsible for approximately 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations in the United States annually.1–3 Recent reports indicate that most deaths are not directly due to influenza virus infection, but to secondary bacterial pneumonia,
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predominantly staphylococcal in origin.1,4 In children, which are a high risk group for influenza complications, co-infection with
Materials and Methods
Mice
Mouse experiments were conducted using six-week old Balb/c mice from Simonsen Labratories (Gilroy CA) and were approved by Oregon State University's (OSU) institutional animal care and use committee. In all experiments prior to intranasal infection, mice were anesthetized by intraperitoneal injection of 67 mg/kg ketamine and 4.5 mg/kg xylazine.
Virus and bacteria
Influenza A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) was obtained from ATCC and grown in MDCK cells in virus growth medium consisting of MEM supplemented with 100 U/ml penicillin, 100 μg/ml streptomycin, and 1.0 μg/ml TPCK treated Trypsin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO). Virus was harvested two days post- infection and stored at –80
Infections
Forty, six-week old, Balb/c mice were split equally into four treatment groups and infected intranasally with 50
Proteomics
Protein profiling for urine samples collected from the four treatment groups was conducted by Applied Biomics (Hayward, CA). Samples were shipped to Applied Biomics on dry ice for 2D-DIGE. Briefly, total protein was extracted and labeled with Cy3 and Cy5 dyes and run through isoelectric focusing and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (12% polyacrylamide; 0.1% SDS) (SDS-PAGE). Two samples and an internal control were run on each gel so expression differences could be examined between gels as well as within each gel by the in-gel Decyder analysis software. Ratio change for differentially expressed protein spots between treatment groups was obtained and spots of interest were picked for identification by mass spectrometry. Protein identification was based on peptide fingerprint mass mapping (using MS data) and peptide fragmentation mapping (using MS/MS data). The MASCOT search engine was used to identify proteins from primary sequence databases.
DNA-microarray analysis
Differential gene expression from blood samples was examined by DNA-microarray analysis using a standard Affymetrix Mouse GENE 1.0ST Array (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA). Blood was collected at day five post infection with 50 μl of blood each from two animals collected in one Qiagen RNAprotect Animal Blood Tube (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). Total RNA was extracted using the Qiagen RNeasy Protect Animal Blood Kit. Microarray assays were performed in the Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing Core Laboratories at Oregon State University. Briefly, labeled target cDNA was prepared from 125 ng mouse blood RNA samples using the NuGen Applause WT-Amp ST RNA amplification system kit protocols (NuGEN Technologies, Inc., San Carlos, CA) and the Encore module V2. Fragmented cDNA in the amount of 2.05 μg was hybridized to the affymetrix array. Cartridge arrays protocols were followed for washing, staining and scanning of Genechips. Image processing and data extraction was performed using AGCC software version 3.0. A total of eight chips with two replicates per treatment group consisting of four pooled mice each, with the exception of only two pooled mice in a replicate of the co-infection treatment group (G2), were analyzed for expression differences using the Array Star software.
Results
Proteomics
The goal of this preliminary study was to identify potential candidate blood and urine biomarkers for future testing. From urine samples, proteomic analysis highlighted several proteins differentially regulated in the co-infection group compared to each other treatment group. A ratio of fold change in expression between groups was compared for the co-infection group against each other treatment group. The control group was compared as well to each of the groups representing a single infection. In addition, single infections were also compared. The single infection with influenza (G1) compared to uninfected control group (G4) yielded 85 spots with a fold change baseline of ≥4. The single infection of
Twelve of the 201 spots (Fig. 1) showing the unique characteristic of having differential expression over the set baseline for the co-infection group compared to each of the other treatment groups were then picked for further analysis and identification. These criterions were established as an ideal characteristic for a protein to be a useful biomarker for co-infection, because a protein ideally would show a high expression change in co-infection compared to an individual uninfected or infected with a single pathogen of interest. Of the 12 spots identified using mass spectrometry, 11 proteins showed high confidence in the protein identification (Table 1).

2D-DIGE gels: Location of spots picked for identification by mass spectrometry on the image overlay of the two 2D-DIGE gels. Image on left is the overlay of gel images from treatment group, G1 (influenza) and G2 (co-infection). Green represents labeled proteins from G1 and red represents those labeled from G2. The image to the right is the overlay of gel images from the gel with treatment groups, G3 (
Proteomic data showing spot identification and predicted protein information. Protein identification with high confidence indicated by a protein score confidence interval (C.I.) of 95% or higher are indicated by an * after spot number in the first column, information such as molecular weight is the predicted data from NCBI for the proteins identified. Of the 11 proteins identified, two proteins, S100 calcium binding protein A9 (calgranulin B)and Ly-6C, were down-regulated in the co-infection group compared to each of other treatment groups. The remaining eight proteins showed up-regulation, seen by fold change differences in the co-infection group compared to the other treatment groups. The epidermal growth factor (Egf) protein and the major urinary protein 3 were both represented by distinct spots multiple times on the 2D-DIGE gels which may suggest post-translational modification of these proteins. Each treatment group is indicated by G1 (influenza infection), G2 (co-infection), G3 (
Microarray analysis
Microarray analysis (Table 2) highlighted several genes of interest as potential biomarkers for validation in the future. Fold change was analyzed between the co- infection group and the other three treatment groups. After removing genes with unknown annotation, eight genes of interest were identified as having expression at least 3-fold lower in the co-infection group over the three other groups, and 26 genes showed expression at least 2-fold lower in the co-infection group, not including the eight showing a 3-fold difference. A total of seven genes showed expression levels at or above a 2-fold increase in co-infection group compared to all three remaining treatment groups, and three genes showed variable expression in the treatment groups when compared to the co-infection group. Serine (or cysteine) peptidase inhibitor, clade G had expression values for the co- infection group over 2-fold higher than that of the control-uninfected group but had co-infection expression values at least 2-fold lower than that of those in either of the single infection groups. Two genes, stefin A1 and stefin A2, showed expression values for the co-infection to be at least 2-fold greater than the single infection with
Microarray analysis data showing expression values along with fold changes and gene identification for those genes with known annotations. Each treatment group is indicated by G1 (influenza infection), G2 (co-infection), G3 (S.
Discussion
In this preliminary study, we have identified a number of candidate blood and urine biomarkers for the identification of a co-infection of influenza and
Disclosure
This manuscript has been read and approved by all authors. This paper is unique and is not under consideration by any other publication and has not been published elsewhere. The authors and peer reviewers of this paper report no conflicts of interest. The authors confirm that they have permission to reproduce any copyrighted material.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
This project was funded by College of Veterinary Medicine Pilot Project Grant Award, Oregon State University.
