Understanding TGEV-ETEC Coinfection through the Lens of Proteomics: A Tale of Porcine Diarrhea
Abstract
Porcine diarrhea and gastroenteritis are major causes of piglet mortality that result in devastating economic losses to the industry. A plethora of pathogens can cause these diseases, with TGEV and ETEC being two of the most salient. In this issue, Xia and colleagues use comparative proteomics to shed light on how these microbes interact to cause severe disease [Xia, L., et al., Proteomics Clin. Appl. 2017, 1600137-n/a]. The authors discovered that TGEV induces an EMT-like phenotype that augments cell adhesion proteins that mediate the attachment of ETEC to intestinal epithelial cells. Moreover, coinfection was found to modulate several host proteins that could bolster pathogen persistence. Importantly, the authors observed that ETEC suppresses the production of inflammatory cytokines induced by TGEV, which may in turn promote the long-term survival of both microbes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.