Regulation of cellular gene expression in endothelial cells by Sin Nombre and Prospect Hill viruses

Mechanisms of hantavirus-induced vascular leakage remain unknown. This study was initiated to determine whether hantavirus-induced changes in endothelial cell gene expression may provide insight into disease mechanisms. Additionally, by using pathogenic Sin Nombre virus (SNV) and non-pathogenic Prospect Hill virus (PHV), we wanted to identify cellular responses that are likely to differentiate pathogenic from nonpathogenic hantaviruses. Using the Affymetrix DNA Array, we found that PHV and SNV did not significantly differ in the number of activated genes (18 versus 14 genes) in infected endothelial cells at 4 h PI. However, a smaller group of genes (36) were up-regulated by PHV compared to SNV (175) at 12 h PI. Only two genes were down-regulated in SNV-infected cells. Expression of the functionally diverse group of genes was altered at an early stage of infection (4 and 12 h PI). The genes affected include putative anti-viral factors, transcription factors, growth factors, chemokines, receptors, structural proteins, metabolism, and kinases. Although many genes were activated in cells infected with SNV and PHV, overall cellular transcriptional responses were more altered by pathogenic SNV compared to non-pathogenic PHV.