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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Virus and Host
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1484529

Virome analysis provides new insights into the pathogenesis mechanism and treatment of SLE disease

Provisionally accepted
Yifan Wu Yifan Wu 1Zhiyuan Zhang Zhiyuan Zhang 1Xinglian Wang Xinglian Wang 1Xun Liu Xun Liu 1Ye Qiu Ye Qiu 1Xing-Yi Ge Xing-Yi Ge 1Zhichao Miao Zhichao Miao 2Xiangxian Meng Xiangxian Meng 1Yousong Peng Yousong Peng 1*
  • 1 Hunan University, Changsha, China
  • 2 Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multi-system autoimmune disease. Many viruses have been reported to be associated with SLE, but the diversity of the virome in SLE and the mechanisms underlying the interactions between viral infection and SLE are still unclear. This study identified ten human virus species from 826 RNA-Seq samples of human blood from 688 SLE patients and 138 healthy controls. Eight of ten virus species were found to have higher positive rates in SLE patients than healthy controls, with Human betaherpesvirus 5 (HHV5) having the highest positive rate (4.1%) and exclusively detected in SLE samples. The virus abundances were low and comparable in both SLE patients and healthy controls. Analysis of the antiviral interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) in samples showed higher ISG expression levels in HHV4 and HHV5-positive samples compared to virus-negative samples, which confirmed viral infections in these virus-positive samples. Further analysis of differential expression genes between virus-positive and negative SLE patients showed that several genes that were up-regulated in SLE patients were further up-regulated in HHV5-infections, and they were mainly enriched in immune response-related biological processes, suggesting an excess immune response in SLE patients after HHV5 infection. Finally, the expression levels of several marker genes of SLE severity were compared between HHV5-positive and virus-negative SLE patients, and the results suggested that HHV5 infection may be associated with aggravated SLE disease.Overall, the study deepens our understanding of the association between viruses and SLE and provides new insights into prevention and control of the disease.

    Keywords: Virus infection, bioinformatics, virome, systemic lupus erythematosus, Virus-disease interaction

    Received: 22 Aug 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wu, Zhang, Wang, Liu, Qiu, Ge, Miao, Meng and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yousong Peng, Hunan University, Changsha, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.