Infectious bronchitis is a highly contagious respiratory disease that results in reduced egg production and can be fatal in young birds. It has recently been identified as the most economically detrimental disease to the poultry industry. It is caused by the gammacoronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which is endemic in most countries worldwide. All viruses modulate cellular processes to establish themselves within the cell. The cellular PI3K/AKT signalling pathway is often modified by viruses and plays a crucial role in the regulation of many cellular processes. In this project the activation of the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway and downstream processes such as apoptosis, translation and macropinocytosis were investigated during IBV infection. Techniques such as western blotting, immunofluorescence, flow cytometry and protein expression were used to determine the effect of IBV infection on modulation of the signalling pathway, as well as the downstream cellular effects of the modulation. This study demonstrates that IBV requires an active PI3K/AKT pathway for efficient replication, and that infection with IBV induces phosphorylation of AKT in a PI3K-dependent manner in mammalian and avian cells. This activation occurs late during infection in mammalian cells. However, in avian cells activation occurs in a biphasic manner at both an early and late time point during infection. To summarise the findings, a model is presented to describe the role of the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway during IBV infection. This study highlights the importance of the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway during IBV infection and may be applied to other human and livestock coronaviruses for development of therapeutics or novel vaccines.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:721947 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Batra, A. |
| Publisher | University of Liverpool |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3004963/ |
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