Bovine viral diarrhea virus infection induces autophagy in MDBK cells

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus that belongs to the genus Pestivirus (Flaviviridae). The signaling pathways and levels of signaling molecules are altered in Madin-Darby Bovine Kidney (MDBK) cells infected with BVDV. Autophagy is a conservative biological degradation pathway that mainly eliminates and degrades damaged or superfluous organelles and macromolecular complexes for intracellular recycling in eukaryotic cells. Autophagy can also be induced as an effective response to maintain cellular homeostasis in response to different stresses, such as nutrient or growth factor deprivation, hypoxia, reactive oxygen species exposure and pathogen infection. However, the effects of BVDV infection on autophagy in MDBK cells remain unclear. Therefore, we performed an analysis of autophagic activity after BVDV NADL infection using real-time PCR, electron microscopy, laser confocal microscopy, and Western blotting analysis. The results demonstrated that BVDV NADL infection increased autophagic activity and significantly elevated the expression levels of the autophagy-related genes Beclin1 and ATG14 in MDBK cells. However, the knockdown of Beclin1 and ATG14 by RNA interference (RNAi) did not affect BVDV NADL infection-related autophagic activity. These findings provided a novel perspective to elaborate the effects of viral infection on the host cells.