Analysis of the interaction of influenza A virus with the PI3K pathway in different avian hosts

Di Lauro, Irene (2019) Analysis of the interaction of influenza A virus with the PI3K pathway in different avian hosts. MRes thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

The PI3K/Akt signalling pathway has been identified as having a major role in influenza A virus pathogenicity. For influenza virus A, the pathway has been shown to be active in humans and chickens, but inactive in ducks. Furthermore, the p85β catalytic subunit of PI3K was shown to bind to NS1, a non-structural protein of influenza viruses, in human lung cells (A549). This triggers a downstream effect of activating the PI3K/Akt pathway, which prolongs cell survival, thus working in favour of viral replication. Western blots of lysed infected primary embryonic quail cells showed that the pathway is also active in infected quail cells for up to 24 hours post-infection. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using the amino acid sequences of p85β originating from different selected species. This showed that avian and mammalian species’ PI3K p85 subunit sequences cluster separately on a phylogenetic tree, indicating a low level of sequence homology. In particular, chicken and quail cluster close together, and appear to be closely related to turkey, whilst duck appears to be very distant from these. Further research is necessary to understand if NS1 interacts with the p85β of avian species, to better dissect the mechanisms that affect influenza A virus pathogenicity.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (MRes)
Supervisors: Dunham, Stephen
Daly, Janet
Keywords: Avian influenza, Virology
Subjects: Q Science > QR Microbiology > QR355 Virology
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Veterinary Medicine and Science
Item ID: 56721
Depositing User: Di Lauro, Irene
Date Deposited: 19 Jul 2019 04:40
Last Modified: 07 May 2020 11:45
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/56721

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