T cell receptor signaling pathway and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction affect the rehabilitation process after respiratory syncytial virus infection

Abstract

Background Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the main cause of respiratory tract infection, which seriously threatens the health and life of children. This study is conducted to reveal the rehabilitation mechanisms of RSV infection. Methods E-MTAB-5195 dataset was downloaded from EBI ArrayExpress database, including 39 acute phase samples in the acute phase of infection and 21 samples in the recovery period. Using the limma package, differentially expressed RNAs (DE-RNAs) were analyzed. The significant modules were identified using WGCNA package, and the mRNAs in them were conducted with enrichment analysis using DAVID tool. Afterwards, co-expression network for the RNAs involved in the significant modules was built by Cytoscape software. Additionally, RSV-correlated pathways were searched from Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, and then the pathway network was constructed. Results There were 2,489 DE-RNAs between the two groups, including 2,386 DE-mRNAs and 103 DE-lncRNAs. The RNAs in the black, salmon, blue, tan and turquoise modules correlated with stage were taken as RNA set1. Meanwhile, the RNAs in brown, blue, magenta and pink modules related to disease severity were defined as RNA set2. In the pathway networks, CD40LG and RASGRP1 co-expressed with LINC00891/LINC00526/LINC01215 were involved in the T cell receptor signaling pathway, and IL1B, IL1R2, IL18, and IL18R1 co-expressed with BAIAP2-AS1/CRNDE/LINC01503/SMIM25 were implicated in cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. Conclusion LINC00891/LINC00526/LINC01215 co-expressed with CD40LG and RASGRP1 might affect the rehabilitation process of RSV infection through the T cell receptor signaling pathway. Besides, BAIAP2-AS1/CRNDE/LINC01503/SMIM25 co-expressed with IL1 and IL18 families might function in the clearance process after RSV infection via cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction.