Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus inhibits dsRNA-induced interferon-ß production in porcine intestinal epithelial cells by blockade of the RIG-I-mediated pathway

Cao, Liyan; Ge, Xuying; Gao, Yu; Herrler, Georg; Ren, Yudong; Ren, Xiaofeng; Li, Guangxing

Vero cell, an African green monkey kidney cell line, was often used to isolate and propagate PEDV [17] . However, it was often considered that Vero cells might lack genetic component necessary for IFN production [18] [19] [20] . Porcine intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) are thought to the target cells of PEDV, which play an important role in the activation of host immune responses by induction of key signaling molecules, including cytokines, surface molecules, and chemokines during microoganism invasion [21, 22] . In the present study, to determine if PEDV infection suppresses IFN-β activation, we chose IECs as an infection model to research the molecular mechanisms of PEDV infection and the host antiviral innate immune response. Our results clearly suggested that PEDV prevented dsRNA-induced IFN-β synthesis by blocking RIG-I-mediated pathways.