Gene expression profile in experimental rabies due to wild-type strains of rabies virus using microarray technique

• Grant number: 14/16018-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date until: November 01, 2014
• End date until: October 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Jane Megid
• Grantee: Camila Michele Appolinario
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Although rabies is considered a very old disease reported throughout the mankind history, little is understood about the immunopathogenicity of different viral strains. Animals studies have demonstrated that viral neuroinvasiveness is inversely correlated with the inflammation level in the Central Nervous System, which is accompanied by neuronal degeneration and apoptosis. Advances in molecular biology techniques enable a more deep study of host immune system, especially the innate immune response associated with rabies infection that leads to an overall gene expression profile modification of the host cell, as well as the viral recognition mechanisms. Changes in this expression profile correlate with viral pathogenicity and also with viral evasion. The present proposition aims to study the gene expression profile in the brain of experimentally infected mice with two different wild-type strains of rabies virus, a variant 2 (dog) with high mortality, and another variant 3 (vampire bat) with lower mortality. The gene expression profile will be evaluated using the microarray technique, which will allow to evaluate the level of expression and identification of genes already known to be important in the infectious process, as well as new genes and/ or pathways related to infection by different pathogenicity strains. (AU)