The Effect and Underlying Mechanism of Yeast β-Glucan on Antiviral Resistance of Zebrafish Against Spring Viremia of Carp Virus Infection

Recently, researchers from the Aquatic Microbiology and Feed innovation team of the Institute of Feed Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) found that dietary β-glucan could improve the resistance of zebrafish against spring viremia of carp virus (SVCV) infection. The paper was published in Frontiers in Immunology.

In recent years, spring viremia of carp (SVC) is caused by SVCV and leads to mass cyprinid mortality and enormous economic losses, and no effective treatment at present. Therefore, the World Organization for Animal Health identifies SVCV as the pathogen of infectious diseases that must be reported. In order to reduce the losses caused by viral diseases, it is very important to develop corresponding functional feeds to enhance the immunity of aquatic animals.

Researchers found dietary β-glucan significantly improved the antiviral immune response of zebrafish after 2-week feeding, it was found that β-glucan could resist virus infection by enhancing the type I interferon (IFN) signal pathway. And  β-glucan induced autophagy in ZF4 cells after SVCV infection, Inhibition of autophagy blocked the antiviral effect of β-glucan in ZF4 cells. In addition, dietary β-glucan improved gut microbiota. The research shows that the β-glucan enhanced resistance of zebrafish against SVCV and the mechanism involved stimulation of type I IFN antiviral immune response of fish after viral infection.

This study was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFD0900400) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31925038, 32122088). More details can be found at the link: DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1031962.

By hui Linag email: HuiLiang1995@hotmail.com