Abstract: Signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM) was identified as the primary receptor of Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) on goat lymphocytes. This study aimed to explore the effects of exosomes derived from PPRV vaccine strain N75-1 infected cells on the expression of SLAM in goats. In this study, SLAM expression and cytokines expression levels of goat PBMCs (recipient cells) incubated with exosomes isolated from PPRV-infected goat PBMCs (Exo-PPRV) was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR, flow cytometric assay and Western blot assay. The results showed that the recipient cells treated with Exo-PPRV had significantly increased SLAM mRNA and cell surface expression (P<0.05) as compared with Exo-Mock treated cells. Furthermore, the increased TNF-α, IL-10, and IFN-γ expression as well as decreased IFN-α expression (P<0.05) were also detected. Further study demonstrated that Exo-PPRV that contained high levels of PPRV H protein could transmit H protein to recipient cells. Moreover, the expression level of SLAM in the pcDNA3.1-H transfected cells was significantly higher than that in the pcDNA3.1 transfected cells and non-transfection group. Taken together, our study demonstrated that PPRV infected cells derived exosomes has positive effects on the SLAM expression in the recipient cells, and that the high level of PPRV H protein contained in PPRV-Exo is one of the key molecules for exosomes to regulate the expression of SLAM in the recipient cells.

Key words: exosomes, peste des petits ruminants virus, goat PBMCs, signaling lymphocyte activation molecule