Sendai virus intra-host population dynamics and host immunocompetence influence viral virulence during in vivo passage

Peña, José; Chen-Harris, Haiyin; Allen, Jonathan E.; Hwang, Mona; Elsheikh, Maher; Mabery, Shalini; Bielefeldt-Ohmann, Helle; Zemla, Adam T.; Bowen, Richard A.; Borucki, Monica K.

Cytokine/chemokine protein expression was assayed to determine whether the observed changes in innate immune response gene expression correlated with protein expression. An eleven-plex, Luminex bead-based screening assay was used to determine protein levels of CCL2, CCL3, CCL5, CXCL2, CXCL10, IL-1b, IL-4, IL6, IL10, IFNc, and TNFa in lung homogenates of mice infected with SeV P1 or P10. Unlike the gene expression analysis there were no pronounced changes in protein expression levels within diet groups (Fig. 4) . Moreover, similar expression profiles were observed within diet groups between SeV P1 and P10. However significant changes in the protein expression profiles of P1 and P10 were detected between diet groups ( Supplementary Fig. S2 ). SD mice infected with SeV P1 demonstrated a statistically significant lower expression level of CCL2, CCL3, CXCL2, CXCL10, IL-6, IL-10, IFNc, and TNFa compared with P1 of ND or FD mice. Infection of SD mice with P10 on the other hand resulted in statistically lower expression of CCL2 and IL-6 compared with P10 from ND or FD mice.