Molecular Insights into the mechanisms of mucosal immunity induced by Brucella abortus infection in nasal-associated lymphoid tissues

Abstract

Brucella abortus is highly contagious and can result in abortion or infertility in animals. This study investigated the mechanism of B. abortus-induced mucosal immunity at different points after infection in a mouse model. GSE125765 was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in nasal-associated lymphoid tissues at 1, 6, and 12 h after intranasal immunization, compared with control samples, were screened. Functional enrichment analysis was performed using the DAVID tool. Gene modules associated with the sample phenotype were then explored using WGCNA. Mfuzz was used to analyze the expression pattern trends of DEGs. The KEGG pathway directly related to B. abortus infection was searched based on the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database 2019 update. Three gene modules, 172, 366, and 167 DEGs aggregated into four expression patterns, were significantly positively correlated with B. abortus infection. The expression of DEGs in cluster 1 first increased and then decreased with prolonged infection. DEG expression in clusters 2–4 continued to rise with prolonged infection. Genes related to B. abortus infection were significantly enriched in ‘lysosome’ in the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, including genes CTSL, CD68, SCARB2, and CTSS, which might be necessary for modulating host–B. abortus interactions through the ‘lysosome’ pathway.

KEYWORDS:

• Brucellosis
• mucosal immunity
• nasal-associated lymphoid tissues

Acknowledgments

None.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, reference number GSE125765.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Teacher Research Support Fund of Jining Medical University (Science and Technology Category) (Program No. JYFC2019FKJ064). The role of the funders is financially supporting this paper.