Pigs Overexpressing Porcine β-Defensin 2 Display Increased Resilience to <i>Glaesserella parasuis</i> Infection
As the causative agent of Glässer’s disease, <i>Glaesserella (Haemophilus) parasuis</i> has led to serious economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. Due to the low cross-protection of vaccines and increasing antimicrobial resistance of <i>G. parasuis</i>, it is importa...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Antibiotics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/9/12/903 |
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| author | Jing Huang Xiaoyu Yang Antian Wang Chao Huang Hao Tang Qiuhong Zhang Qiong Fang Zuming Yu Xiao Liu Qi Huang Rui Zhou Lu Li |
| author_facet | Jing Huang Xiaoyu Yang Antian Wang Chao Huang Hao Tang Qiuhong Zhang Qiong Fang Zuming Yu Xiao Liu Qi Huang Rui Zhou Lu Li |
| author_sort | Jing Huang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As the causative agent of Glässer’s disease, <i>Glaesserella (Haemophilus) parasuis</i> has led to serious economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. Due to the low cross-protection of vaccines and increasing antimicrobial resistance of <i>G. parasuis</i>, it is important to develop alternative approaches to prevent <i>G. parasuis</i> infection. Defensins are host defense peptides that have been suggested to be promising substitutes for antibiotics in animal production, while porcine β-defensin 2 (PBD-2) is a potent antimicrobial peptide discovered in pigs. Our previous study generated transgenic (TG) pigs overexpressing PBD-2, which displayed enhanced resistance to <i>Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae</i>. In this study, the antibacterial activities of PBD-2 against <i>G. parasuis</i> are determined in vitro and in the TG pig model. The concentration-dependent bactericidal activity of synthetic PBD-2 against <i>G. parasuis</i> was measured by bacterial counting. Moreover, after being infected with <i>G. parasuis</i> via a cohabitation challenge model, TG pigs overexpressing PBD-2 displayed significantly milder clinical signs and less severe gross pathological changes than their wild-type (WT) littermates. The TG pigs also exhibited alleviated lung and brain lesions, while bacterial loads in the lung and brain tissues of the TG pigs were significantly lower than those of the WT pigs. Additionally, lung and brain homogenates from TG pigs possessed enhanced antibacterial activity against <i>G. parasuis</i> when compared with those from the WT pigs. Altogether, these proved that overexpression of PBD-2 could also endow pigs with increased resilience to <i>G. parasuis</i> infection, which further confirmed the potential of using the PBD-2 coding gene to develop disease-resistant pigs and provided a novel strategy to combat <i>G. parasuis</i> as well. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:06:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d5e39fb457134cbcbdeaccca9c76fedb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-6382 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:06:18Z |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Antibiotics |
| spelling | doaj.art-d5e39fb457134cbcbdeaccca9c76fedb2023-11-21T00:39:51ZengMDPI AGAntibiotics2079-63822020-12-0191290310.3390/antibiotics9120903Pigs Overexpressing Porcine β-Defensin 2 Display Increased Resilience to <i>Glaesserella parasuis</i> InfectionJing Huang0Xiaoyu Yang1Antian Wang2Chao Huang3Hao Tang4Qiuhong Zhang5Qiong Fang6Zuming Yu7Xiao Liu8Qi Huang9Rui Zhou10Lu Li11State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaAs the causative agent of Glässer’s disease, <i>Glaesserella (Haemophilus) parasuis</i> has led to serious economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. Due to the low cross-protection of vaccines and increasing antimicrobial resistance of <i>G. parasuis</i>, it is important to develop alternative approaches to prevent <i>G. parasuis</i> infection. Defensins are host defense peptides that have been suggested to be promising substitutes for antibiotics in animal production, while porcine β-defensin 2 (PBD-2) is a potent antimicrobial peptide discovered in pigs. Our previous study generated transgenic (TG) pigs overexpressing PBD-2, which displayed enhanced resistance to <i>Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae</i>. In this study, the antibacterial activities of PBD-2 against <i>G. parasuis</i> are determined in vitro and in the TG pig model. The concentration-dependent bactericidal activity of synthetic PBD-2 against <i>G. parasuis</i> was measured by bacterial counting. Moreover, after being infected with <i>G. parasuis</i> via a cohabitation challenge model, TG pigs overexpressing PBD-2 displayed significantly milder clinical signs and less severe gross pathological changes than their wild-type (WT) littermates. The TG pigs also exhibited alleviated lung and brain lesions, while bacterial loads in the lung and brain tissues of the TG pigs were significantly lower than those of the WT pigs. Additionally, lung and brain homogenates from TG pigs possessed enhanced antibacterial activity against <i>G. parasuis</i> when compared with those from the WT pigs. Altogether, these proved that overexpression of PBD-2 could also endow pigs with increased resilience to <i>G. parasuis</i> infection, which further confirmed the potential of using the PBD-2 coding gene to develop disease-resistant pigs and provided a novel strategy to combat <i>G. parasuis</i> as well.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/9/12/903porcine β-defensin 2transgenic pigs<i>Glaesserella (Haemophilus) parasuis</i>disease-resistant animalantimicrobial peptideantibacterial activity |
| spellingShingle | Jing Huang Xiaoyu Yang Antian Wang Chao Huang Hao Tang Qiuhong Zhang Qiong Fang Zuming Yu Xiao Liu Qi Huang Rui Zhou Lu Li Pigs Overexpressing Porcine β-Defensin 2 Display Increased Resilience to <i>Glaesserella parasuis</i> Infection Antibiotics porcine β-defensin 2 transgenic pigs <i>Glaesserella (Haemophilus) parasuis</i> disease-resistant animal antimicrobial peptide antibacterial activity |
| title | Pigs Overexpressing Porcine β-Defensin 2 Display Increased Resilience to <i>Glaesserella parasuis</i> Infection |
| title_full | Pigs Overexpressing Porcine β-Defensin 2 Display Increased Resilience to <i>Glaesserella parasuis</i> Infection |
| title_fullStr | Pigs Overexpressing Porcine β-Defensin 2 Display Increased Resilience to <i>Glaesserella parasuis</i> Infection |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pigs Overexpressing Porcine β-Defensin 2 Display Increased Resilience to <i>Glaesserella parasuis</i> Infection |
| title_short | Pigs Overexpressing Porcine β-Defensin 2 Display Increased Resilience to <i>Glaesserella parasuis</i> Infection |
| title_sort | pigs overexpressing porcine β defensin 2 display increased resilience to i glaesserella parasuis i infection |
| topic | porcine β-defensin 2 transgenic pigs <i>Glaesserella (Haemophilus) parasuis</i> disease-resistant animal antimicrobial peptide antibacterial activity |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/9/12/903 |
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