qRT-PCR analysis of primary CD36+ cells infected with parvovirus B19

The goal of our present work was to understand the influence parvovirus B19 infection may have on the thyroid hormone signaling pathway, as well as the nuclear receptors (NR) pathway overall. We demonstrated that B19 infection of CD36+ erythroid progenitor cells leads to downregulation of the thyroid hormone receptor α isoform. In addition to that we have shown that B19 infection modulates the expression of other members of the NR superfamily such as estrogen and retinoid receptors. CD36+ cells (StemCell Technologies) were mock-infected or infected with B19, 48 hours post infection cells were collected, total RNA was isolated, and cDNA was obtained as described above. TaqMan® array human nuclear receptors fast 96-well plates obtained from Applied Biosystems (Carlsbad, CA) were utilized in order to assess the differences of 92 nuclear receptors’ expression in mock- and B19-infected CD36+ cells. Relative quantity (RQ) values were calculated using the 2-ΔΔCt method.