%0 Journal Article %A Martin Pech %A Brian G. Oliver %A Andre Franke %A Femke-Anouska Heinsen %A Markus Weckmann %A Matthias Kopp %T RV-infection modifies DNA-methylation in nasal airway epithelium cell line: Evaluation as a possible asthma trigger %D 2014 %J European Respiratory Journal %P 3231 %V 44 %N Suppl 58 %X During childhood recurrent rhino virus (RV) infections of the respiratory tract significantly increase the risk to develop asthma. To improve our knowledge about possible trigger mechanisms, a viral infected bronchial airway epithelium cell line was analyzed to detect modifications of the epigenetic gene regulatory mechanisms of DNA-methylation.The Beas-2b cells were infected with RV-16 (HeLa origin) using different multiplicities of infection (MOI) and samples were harvested until 44 h post infection. The gene expression of DNA-methyltransferases (DNMT) was determined by quantitative RT-PCR. Activity of the DNMTs was verified with the EpiSeeker DNMT Activity Quantification Kit (Abcam). A genome wide analysis of the DNA-methylation was performed using the HumanMethylation450 BeadChip Kit (Illumina).RV-infected Beas-2b cells showed a reduction of the DNMT-activity with the increase of infection duration time and MOI (p<0.05). In line with these findings, we detected a decrease of gene expression of a DNMT (p<0.05). The genome wide analysis of DNA-methylation showed a viral induced modification for more than 5000 CpG islands.Our results indicate an effect of viral infection on cellular methylation pathways and the differential expression of several gens. Differential gene expression will be verified with the help of GeneChip Human Transcriptome Array 2.0 (Affymetrix). The ongoing evaluation of the genome wide analysis of methylation will provide information about associated gens and asthma relevant pathways. Our in-vitro experiments will be extended to brushed nasal airway epithelium cells to confirm our findings. %U