INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF TRANSLATION REGULATION IN VIRUS: HOST INTERACTIONS IN HAND, FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE

Abstract

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is one of the major causative agents of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD). As an RNA virus, it relies heavily on the hosts’ processes, including RNA translation. While some host factors necessary for successful infection have previously been identified, we would like to know if a translation-centric method can be used to identify more of such host factors. We hypothesised that the translation of various genes necessary for viral infection may be increased. Hence, we studied changes in the translatome and mRNA abundance at specific timepoints of EV-A71-infected Rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells using ribosome profiling and RNA-Seq. By clustering based on trends in translation throughout infection, we identified categories of genes that were upregulated, including some GTPase-related factors, and we tried to verify these results using specific inhibitors. Our findings suggest a potential role of a Rho kinase 2 (ROCK2) pathway, although the mechanism requires further elucidation.