Quantitative proteomic analysis of A549 cells infected with human adenovirus type 2

Human adenovirus (HAdV-2) is considered a common agent of respiratory tract infection in the human, especially in children. Virus infection is believed to modify host cell expression necessary for its replication and therefore cell proteome can reflect the changes of specific cellular pathways during infection. This study aims to identify differentially expressed proteins of A549 cells in response to HAdV-2 infection using a label-free liquid chromatography-high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry strategy (LC-MS/MS) at 24 and 48 hpi. A total of 248 and 216 proteins were deregulated by 1.35-fold at 24 and 48 hpi, respectively. Among them, 155 were upregulated at 24 hpi and 86 at 48 hpi, whereas 93 and 130 were downregulated at 24 and 48 hpi, respectively. The identified proteins were involved in different pathways as energy, transcription, protein synthesis, cytoskeleton, rescue and defense, cell cycle, DNA processing, transportation, and metabolism. Glycolytic pathway and histone deregulated proteins were further confirmed by chemical testing and immunofluorescence, respectively. The results suggest that the identified proteins influenced HAdV-2 infection in the context of viral replication and propagation. This study complement proteomic data obtained from previous studies and reinforce the understanding of the relationship between HAdV and host cell.