Transcriptomic analysis reveals the multifaceted impairments of DC functions produced by a Morbillivirus infection

Viruses have evolved numerous strategies to impair immunity so that they can replicate more efficiently, such as the immunosuppressive effects of Morbillivirus infection. In the present work we hypothesized that the highly contagious morbillivirus Peste des Petits Ruminants virus (PPRV) could target monocytes and dendritic cells (DC) to contribute to the immunosuppressive effects produced by the infection. Monocytes isolated from healthy sheep donor, a natural host of the disease, could be infected by PPRV and this impaired the differentiation and phagocytic ability of immature monocyte-derived DC (MoDC). Ovine MoDC could be productively infected by PPRV, and this drastically reduced MoDC capacity to activate allogeneic T cell responses. Transcriptomic analysis of infected MoDC indicated that several tolerogenic DC signature genes were upregulated upon PPRV infection. Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for eight mMoDCs cultures (four PPRV-infected (48 hours post infection) and four mock-infected).