Dietary Supplementation with Nano-Zinc Modulates Expression of the Antiviral Immune Gene IRF3-A Novel Report

Amrita Tah¹ARUNA PAL^1*Achinta Mahato¹Debasis De²Argha Chakraborty¹MANTI DEBNATH¹Sovan Roy³Paresh Nath Chatterjee^1*

• ¹West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, India
• ²ICAR-Central Institute of Brakishwater Aquaculture, Kakdwip Research Centre, South 24 PGs 743347, India, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
• ³West Bengal State Council of Science and Technology, Department of Science & Technology and Biotechnology, Vigyan C. Bhavan, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700064, India, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

In the era of SARS-CoV-2, the application of zinc has increased worldwide. It has the potential to increase the body's antioxidant status and better immune make-up. Now zinc is used as a therapeutic agent indiscriminately and that creates an unwanted antagonism with other interacting micronutrients which are present in the gut and cause secondary deficiencies of other critical micronutrients, and it often leads to various complications. In this study our aim is to formulate a nano-sized zinc. We find that our synthesized nano-zinc has an antiviral effect using milk fish (Chanos chanos) as a model organism. We choose the IRF3 gene as a molecular marker for antiviral assessment which have different integral zinc binding sites. For the first time, we have characterized the IRF3 gene in Chanos chanos and discovered certain important domains as zinc binding sites, and other important domains related to antiviral activity, such as serine protease NS3 activity, and the IRF tryptophan pentad repeat domain. The expression profile of IRF3 was significantly improved among the fish which were supplemented with dietary nano-zinc and the best effect was noticed in the treatment that was supplemented with 40 ppm nano-zinc fortified feed. The results of our study reveal that nano-zinc can directly be incorporated into IRF3, which increases its bioavailability and improves its antiviral activity through biochemical pathways as described by String and Kegg pathway analysis.