VHSV IVb infection and autophagy modulation in the rainbow trout gill epithelial cell line RTgill-W1

Autophagy modulation influences the success of intracellular pathogens, and an understanding of the mechanisms involved might offer practical options to reduce the impact of infectious disease. Viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) can cause high mortality and economic loss in some commercial fish species. VHSV IVb was used to infect a rainbow trout gill cell line, RTgill-W1, followed by the treatment of the cells with different autophagy-modulating reagents. LC3II protein using Western blot was significantly (p < .05) decreased for two days following VHSV infection, and immunofluorescence confirmed that LC3II-positive intracytoplasmic puncta were also decreased. Infection with VHSV resulted in significantly decreased expression of the autophagy-related (Atg) genes atg4, at12, atg13 and becn1 after one day using quantitative PCR. Both viral gene copy number and VHSV N protein were significantly decreased by treating the cells with autophagy-blocking (chloroquine) and autophagy-inhibiting reagents (deoxynivalenol and 3-methyladenine) after three days, while autophagy induction (restricted nutrition and rapamycin) had limited effect. Only treatment of RTgill-W1 with deoxynivalenol resulted in a significant increase in expression of type I interferon. Therefore, the suppression of autophagy initially occurs after VHSV IVb infection, but the modulation of autophagy can also inhibit VHSV IVb infection in RTgill-W1 after three days.