Cytokine gene expression assay as a diagnostic tool for detection of Mycobacterium bovis infection in warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus)
Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nature Research (part of Springer Nature)
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Mycobacterium bovis infection has been described in many wildlife species across Africa. However, diagnostic tests are lacking for many of these, including warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus). Most literature on suids has focused on using serological tools, with few studies investigating the use of cell-mediated immune response (CMI) assays. A recent study showed that warthogs develop measurable CMI responses, which suggests that cytokine gene expression assays (GEAs) may be valuable for detecting M. bovis-infection, as shown in numerous African wildlife species. Therefore, the aim of the study was to develop GEAs capable of distinguishing between M. bovis-infected and uninfected warthogs. Whole blood was stimulated using the QuantiFERON-TB Gold (In-Tube) system, using ESAT-6 and CFP-10 peptides, before determining the relative gene expression of five reference (B2M, H3F3A, LDHA, PPIA and YWHAZ) and five target (CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, IFNG and TNFA) genes through qPCR. The reference gene H3F3A was the most stably expressed, while all target genes were significantly upregulated in M. bovis-infected warthogs with the greatest upregulation observed for CXCL10. Consequently, the CXCL10 GEA shows promise as an ante-mortem diagnostic tool for the detection of M. bovis-infected warthogs.
Description
CITATION: Roos, E., et al. 2019. Cytokine gene expression assay as a diagnostic tool for detection of Mycobacterium bovis infection in warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus). Scientific Reports, 9:16525, doi:10.1038/s41598-019-53045-0.
The original publication is available at https://www.nature.com
The original publication is available at https://www.nature.com
Keywords
Mycobacterium bovis, Cytokines -- Gene expression, Bovine tuberculosis, Warthog, Phacochoerus
Citation
Roos, E., et al. 2019. Cytokine gene expression assay as a diagnostic tool for detection of Mycobacterium bovis infection in warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus). Scientific Reports, 9:16525, doi:10.1038/s41598-019-53045-0