Differential expression of cellular genes during a West Nile virus infection

Abstract

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus and has the potential to cause fatal meningoencephalitis in infected victims. A screening of the global genomic expression was carried out, as mechanisms of WNV-host interactions are still not well understood. A comparison of the transcriptomic profiles were carried out on HeLa and A172 cells, and time course study was performed on A172 cells. A172 cells were found to be permissive to WNV infection. Four functional classes of genes belonging to cytoskeletal structure and functions, hexose metabolism, protein biosynthesis and RNA processing were found to be significantly differentially regulated between the two cell types. In the time sequence study in WNV-infected A172 cells, differentially expressed genes during the course of the West Nile infection were clustered into 6 groups based on their gene expression patterns.