Inactivated E. coli transformed with plasmids that produce dsRNA against infectious salmon anemia virus hemagglutinin show antiviral activity when added to infected ASK cells.
Infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) has caused great losses to the Chilean salmon industry, and the success of prevention and treatment strategies is uncertain. The use of RNA interference (RNAi) is a promising approach because during the replication cycle, the ISAV genome must be transcribed to mRNA in the cytoplasm. We explored the capacity of E. coli transformed with plasmids that produce double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to induce antiviral activity when added to infected ASK cells. We transformed the non-pathogenic Escherichia coli HT115 (DE3) with plasmids that expressed highly conserved regions of the ISAV genes encoding the nucleoprotein (NP), fusion (F), hemagglutinin (HE), and matrix (M) proteins as dsRNA, which is the precursor of the RNAi mechanism. The inactivated transformed bacteria carrying dsRNA were tested for their capacity to silence the target ISAV genes, and the dsRNA that were able to inhibit gene expression were subsequently tested for their ability to attenuate the cytopathic effect (CPE) and reduce the viral load. Of the four target genes tested, inactivated E. coli transformed with plasmids producing dsRNA targeting HE showed antiviral activity when added to infected ASK cells.
Laboratorio de Biotecnología, Unidad de Alimentos, Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile.
Katherine
K
García
Laboratorio de Biotecnología, Unidad de Alimentos, Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile.
Sebastián
S
Ramírez-Araya
Laboratorio de Biotecnología, Unidad de Alimentos, Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile.
Álvaro
Á
Díaz
Facultad de Química y Biología, Centro de Biotecnología Acuícola, Universidad de Santiago de Chile Santiago, Chile.
Sebastián
S
Reyes-Cerpa
Laboratorio de Biotecnología, Unidad de Alimentos, Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile ; Centro Nacional de Genómica y Bioinformática (Omics Solutions) Santiago, Chile.
Romilio T
RT
Espejo
Laboratorio de Biotecnología, Unidad de Alimentos, Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile.
Gastón
G
Higuera
Laboratorio de Biotecnología, Unidad de Alimentos, Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile.
Jaime
J
Romero
antiviral; aquaculture; bacterial delivery; double-stranded RNA; infectious salmon anemia virus