Simple Summary
Autophagy is a natural recycling process inside cells that removes damaged components and helps maintain health. When viruses infect livestock and poultry, autophagy can act as a defense mechanism by breaking down viral particles. However, some viruses have evolved ways to hijack this process to create a safe environment for their own replication and to evade the host’s immune system. This review focuses on four important picornaviruses that cause serious diseases in cattle and poultry: Seneca Valley virus (SVV), encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV), foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), and duck hepatitis A virus (DHAV). We summarize current knowledge on how these viruses manipulate different steps of autophagy to benefit themselves, and how host cells use selective autophagy receptors to recognize and destroy viral proteins. In response, viruses employ viral proteases to sabotage these receptors. Understanding these complex interactions may help develop new antiviral strategies and biomarkers for disease progression in livestock.
Abstract
Autophagy is a conserved catabolic process that degrades damaged proteins and organelles to preserve cellular homeostasis. Autophagy plays two opposing roles during viral infection. On the one hand, it can be subverted by viruses to facilitate replication and immune evasion. On the other hand, it limits viral infection by delivering viral components to lysosomes. The interaction between autophagy and important picornaviruses that infect cattle and poultry, such as SVV, EMCV, FMDV, and DHAV, is the main topic of this paper. However, comprehensive summaries focusing specifically on livestock and poultry remain limited. We summarize current research showing that these viruses evade host protection by manipulating several steps of the autophagic pathway, from initiation to lysosomal fusion, to produce replication-favorable environments. Notably, by directing the breakdown of viral capsid proteins, specific autophagy receptors such as SQSTM1/p62, NDP52, and optineurin (OPTN) serve as antiviral effectors. In response, picornaviruses have developed proteolytic strategies to inactivate these receptors, such as SVV 3C-mediated cleavage of SQSTM1 and OPTN. Moreover, different immune evasion tactics are shown by virus-specific engagement of organelle-selective autophagy, such as ER-phagy (SVV) or mitophagy (DHAV). The development of broad-spectrum antiviral treatments and autophagy-based biomarkers for livestock disease progression may benefit from an understanding of the convergent and different ways picornaviruses take advantage of the autophagic machinery.
1. Introduction
1.1. Picornavirus
The family Picornaviridae comprises 147 species distributed across 63 genera. Many of these species infect livestock and poultry, producing a range of illnesses and imposing a heavy financial burden on animal husbandry (Table 1) [1]. These include the SVV, EMCV, DHAV, and FMDV, which pose major risks to farming operations and result in significant financial losses and health issues [2,3]. These viruses cause a variety of illnesses in cattle, pigs, poultry, and other hosts, from encephalomyelitis and foot-and-mouth disease to hepatitis and several systemic disorders [4]. According to recent research, autophagy has a complicated, dual role throughout these viruses’ infections. On the one hand, autophagy can inhibit viral replication by breaking down viral particles or promoting antigen presentation as a component of the host innate immune response. However, some viruses can hijack the autophagic route and exploit autophagosomal membranes to accelerate the budding of progeny virions, promote viral RNA replication, and avoid host immune surveillance [5,6].
Table 1.
Summary of picornavirus genera and species infecting domestic livestock and poultry.
The Picornaviridae family of small, non-enveloped RNA viruses has a single, continuous open reading frame (ORF) flanked by a 5′ untranslated region (UTR) and a 3′ UTR that ends in a poly(A) tail. They are between 6.7 and 10.1 kilobases in size. One feature of these viruses is the viral genome-linked protein 3B(VPg) [7]. It has a covalent bond with the positive-sense RNA strand’s 5′ end. For cap-independent translation to begin, the 5′-UTR has an internal ribosome entry site (IRES). The ORF encodes a large precursor polyprotein that is broken down by viral proteases both during and after translation to produce the capsid proteins VP0, VP1, and VP3, in addition to several nonstructural proteins like 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D [8]. Moreover, viral RNA replication depends on the synthesis of stable precursor molecules like 3AB and 3CD [9] (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
(A) An illustration of the picornavirus genome structure. The 5′ untranslated region (UTR) contains an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) that mediates cap-independent translation. VP1, VP2, VP3, VP4, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D are the products of the polyprotein’s sequential cleavage after the single ORF has been translated. A polyadenylate (polyA) tail is found at the picornavirus genome’s 3′ end. (B) Viral attachment, endocytosis, viral RNA release, protein translation and proteolysis, RNA replication, viral assembly, and the budding of mature virions are all phases in the picornavirus replication cycle.
1.2. Autophagy
Autophagy is a fundamental and evolutionarily conserved catabolic system that degrades proteins and organelles to maintain cellular homeostasis [10,11]. This extensive process is classified into three main categories: macroautophagy, chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), and microautophagy. During microautophagy, lysosomes directly ingest cytoplasmic materials through membrane invagination [12]. The proteins that CMA particularly targets for disintegration are recognized by chaperone proteins, and they are transported to the lysosomes via a unique receptor-mediated pathway. The most prevalent mechanism for the bulk turnover of cytoplasmic components, macroautophagy, involves the creation of autophagosomes [13,14]. The autophagy pathway consists of several phases. The first sequestering compartment, the phagophore, is the first to undergo nucleation and growth [15]. The phagophore closes to form the autophagosome, a double-membraned structure that encloses the cargo [16]. The autophagosome subsequently combines with an endosome to form the acidic amphisome. In the end, the amphisome merges with a lysosome to enable the vesicular contents of the autolysosome to break down [17,18].
Autophagy, an essential defense mechanism in organisms, is crucial in avoiding viral infections because it sends cytoplasmic virions or viral components to lysosomes for destruction [19]. This pathway is essential for maintaining cellular homeostasis because it enables the lysosomal breakdown of misfolded proteins and the removal of damaged or malfunctioning organelles. During nutrient deprivation, it is also an essential source of energy [20,21]. Additionally, autophagy enhances pathogen elimination, inflammatory responses, and antigen presentation. Crucially, on the surface of infected cells, MHC-I and MHC-II complexes display peptides generated by the autophagic breakdown of internal pathogens, enabling immune cell identification and triggering immune responses to manage infections [22]. In order to evade the host’s immune system and facilitate their replication, research has shown that some viruses can either block or avoid autophagy, while others can control or hijack the process [23,24] (Figure 2).
Figure 2.
An example of the main elements and critical stages of the autophagy. Pathway include phagophore activation, autophagosome growth, lysosomal acidification, fusion, and cargo destruction. Figure 2 was created using Adobe Illustrator v29.x.
1.3. The Mechanism and Regulation of Autophagy
1.3.1. Autophagy Initiation
Autophagy initiation is primarily regulated by mTORC1, an essential inhibitor and regulatory center. Under normal circumstances, mTORC1 is active; under stressful situations, such as food scarcity or pathogen invasion, it becomes inactive, initiating autophagy [25,26]. Key signaling pathways include the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK/mTORC1 pathway, which responds to growth factors and stress; the AMPK/mTORC1 pathway, where AMPK inhibits mTOR under energy limitation; and the PI3K/AKT/mTORC1 pathway, which integrates survival signals [27,28]. Autophagosome formation depends on the phosphorylation and activation of Class III PI3K, which leads to the production of PI3P and the recruitment of WIPI2 and DFCP1 [29]. The autophagy initiation complex, which consists of ULK1, ATG13, ATG101, and FIP200, is responsible for this. Moreover, immunological effectors like cGAS and STING1 can initiate non-canonical autophagy as a protective strategy against viral infections [30].
1.3.2. Expansion and Sealing of the Autophagic Membrane
A carefully planned series of actions is involved in the autophagosome’s elongation [31]. To recruit the ATG12–ATG5–ATG16L1 complex to the phagophore assembly site, the membrane-bound protein WIPI2 first directly interacts with the ATG16L1 component [32]. Autophagosome elongation depends on this complex, which is put together by ubiquitin-like conjugation processes mediated by ATG7 (E1 enzyme) and ATG10 (E2 enzyme) [33]. The ATG12–ATG5–ATG16L1 complex then promotes the lipidation of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta (MAP1LC3B/LC3) by acting as an E3-like ligase. A second ubiquitin-like system—ATG7 (E1), ATG3 (E2), and the ATG12–ATG5–ATG16L1 complex itself—is involved in this lipidation [34]. Before that, pro-LC3 is cleaved by ATG4 to produce cytosolic LC3-I. Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and LC3-I combine to create LC3-II upon autophagy induction, which is then incorporated into the inner and outer membranes of the developing autophagosome [35]. A common indicator of autophagic activity is the level of LC3-II [19].
Cargo receptors bind on the autophagosome membrane after it has been coated with LC3-II. An LC3-interacting region (LIR) on autophagy receptors such SQSTM1/p62, NBR1, and TOLLIP allows them to bind to both LC3-II on the autophagosome membrane and particular cargo, such as ubiquitinated proteins or viral components, at the same time [36]. The cargo can be trapped in autophagosomes and then transported to lysosomes for destruction because to this bridging contact.
1.3.3. Autophagic Degradation
Autophagosomes and lysosomes combine through a meticulously regulated process. The first phase is the meticulous cargo packing of the developing autophagosome. This vesicle then moves along the cytoskeleton toward the lysosome [37]. When it reaches its destination, a precise fusing event takes place, forming an autolysosome. This intricate sequence of events is coordinated by several intracellular proteins, but the SNARE superfamily, which consists of YKT6, STX17, SNAP29, VAMP3 and VAMP8, is essential [38]. They are supported by tethering proteins like the HOPS complex and the Rab GTPase family, which includes RAB7 and RAB8B. Two SNARE complexes—YKT6-SNAP29-STX7 and STX17-SNAP29-VAMP8—are necessary for the fusion process [39]. Tethering factors work as guides to bring vesicles near their target membranes for a stable and successful fusion [21]. Rubicon regulates the process and influences maturation through interactions with VPS34, ATG14L, Rab7, and UVRAG. Rab7 connects the autophagosome to the lysosome’s HOPS complex with the aid of PLEKHM1, whereas UVRAG, a part of the PI3KC3 complex, activates fusion components [40]. Within the autolysosome, lysosomal enzymes break down LC3B-II and other ingested cargo before recycling it. This degradation requires the creation of autolysosomes, which include phosphoinositides PI(3)P and PI(4)P, Rab7, and proteins such the HOPS complex and ATG14 [41]. The SNARE complex, which consists of STX17, SNAP29, and VAMP7/8, enables the final fusion phase. It delivers the contents to the lysosome so they can be destroyed. The acidic lysosomal environment must activate hydrolases in order to ensure the full breakdown of autophagic cargo [42].
1.4. Exploring the Interactions Between Autophagy and Picornaviruses
Autophagy, a cellular degradation system, may play a protective role by limiting picornavirus replication by delivering them to autolysosomes for destruction [43]. Further study, however, demonstrates the complexity of this interaction because picornaviruses have evolved multiple strategies not only to hinder but also to hijack the autophagic machinery to promote their replication [44]. While autophagy functions as a cellular self-defense mechanism that attempts to limit infection by dismantling viral components, picornaviruses skillfully regulate different stages of autophagy to maintain their replication and survival. This connection is illustrated by the intricate interactions between viral proteins and the autophagy process. In the discussion that follows, we will examine how picornavirus proteins affect autophagy and how autophagy affects the virus in order to thoroughly examine this complex relationship. We hope this review clarifies the connection between picornaviruses and autophagy, which may aid in the future development of novel antiviral strategies (Figure 3).
Figure 3.
Summary of the major mechanisms by which picornavirus proteins manipulate the autophagy machinery during infection. Key phases of the autophagy pathway—initiation, elongation, closure, and fusion—involve ULK1/ATG11/ATG13/ATG101, Beclin1/VPS34/VPS15/ATG14, ATG3/ATG5/ATG12/ATG8/LC3-1 complex. Viral proteins interfere with these phases by activating mTOR (a conserved Ser/Thr kinase), interacting with autophagy-related proteins, targeting specific steps, and blocking autophagosome—lysosome fusion or lysosomal acidification, thereby subverting cellular autophagy to promote viral replication. Figure 3 was created with Adobe Illustrator v29.x.
This narrative review was based on literature retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI using keyword combinations including “autophagy”, “SVV”, “EMCV”, “FMDV”, “DHAV”, and “selective autophagy receptor”. Priority was given to original mechanistic studies and high-citation reviews published after 2010. We focus on four picornaviruses—SVV, EMCV, FMDV, and DHAV—each of which causes severe diseases in pigs, poultry, or cattle and imposes a major economic burden on livestock production. Recent studies have revealed that these viruses exploit both shared and virus-specific autophagic pathways, making autophagy a central host–pathogen battlefield during infection (Table 2).
Table 2.
Summary of autophagy—picornavirus interactions: viral proteins, host targets, and biological outcomes.
3. Discussion
Despite their distinct hosts and pathologies, FMDV, SVV, EMCV and DHAV have converged on a shared strategy: inducing early autophagic flux while blocking late degradation [18]. All four viruses enhance LC3-II lipidation and activate the PI3KC3–Beclin1 axis, but they also impede autophagosome–lysosome fusion or lysosomal acidification, a phenomenon known as “arrested autophagy” [71]. FMDV 2C and DHAV 2B, which both increase autophagosome numbers without effective cargo turnover, serve as the best examples of this [72]. Similar to the replication organelles produced by other positive-strand RNA viruses, the result is a membrane-rich, degradative-compromised compartment that acts as a scaffold for viral RNA replication. This convergent manipulation implies that picornaviruses have evolved to separate autophagy’s membrane-generating function from its destructive potential; this idea may apply to other Picornaviridae family members [73].
One important finding from recent research is that the main antiviral defense against picornaviruses is made up of selective autophagy receptors rather than bulk macroautophagy. Viral capsid proteins (such as SVV VP1/VP3 and EMCV VP1/VP2) are directly bound by SQSTM1/p62, NDP52, and OPTN, which then target them for autophagic destruction. Importantly, picornaviruses have developed defense mechanisms that selectively block these receptors [74,75]. SQSTM1 and OPTN are cleaved at numerous glutamine residues by SVV 3C protease, while NDP52 is autophagically degraded by EMCV 2C [53]. Conversely, viruses rarely target LC3 or core ATG proteins, suggesting that they fine-tune rather than completely eliminate the route to prevent total loss of autophagic membrane supplies [76]. This receptor-centric perspective redefines the autophagy–picornavirus interface: the integrity of receptor-mediated cargo capture is more important for the outcome of infection than autophagic flux in and of itself [77].
Picornaviruses influence immune responses by differentially engaging ER-phagy and mitophagy in addition to traditional macroautophagy. SVV blunts type I interferon responses by actively subverting ER-phagy via the FAM134B receptor to destroy STING [78]. This mechanism has not yet been documented for other picornaviruses. On the other hand, mitophagy suppresses DHAV infection; matrine, a naturally occurring substance, restores mitophagy to minimize mitochondrial damage and excessive RIG-I signaling, indicating a protective role for selective organelle clearance [79]. In contrast, EMCV uses its leader protein to initiate secretory autophagy, which releases virions inside extracellular vesicles—a non-lytic egress pathway that could aid in immune evasion. Each virus’s distinct susceptibility to particular innate pathways is probably reflected in these different tactics [80]. It is still unclear why certain picornaviruses target STING (SVV), while others target MAVS (EMCV) or completely avoid organelle-specific autophagy (FMDV). Replication kinetics and tissue tropism may play a role [81].
Treatment options are made possible by the predominance of proviral autophagy during active infection. All four viruses’ replication is consistently reduced by pharmacological autophagy inhibitors (3 methyladenine, chloroquine), although their clinical application in livestock is restricted due to toxicity and off-target effects [82,83]. Stabilizing selective autophagy receptors—for instance, by creating small compounds that prevent 3C-mediated cleavage of SQSTM1 or OPTN, so preserving antiviral cargo degradation—would be a more sophisticated strategy [84,85]. On the other hand, immunopathology might be lessened by increasing mitophagy (as with matrine against DHAV) without significantly reducing autophagy. There are still a number of important unanswered questions: (i) Why do certain picornaviruses prevent autophagosome–lysosome fusion whereas others do not? (ii) Is it possible to use the ratio of cleaved to full-length SQSTM1 in tissue samples as a biomarker of the stage of viral replication? (iii) Do naturally resistant hosts show constitutively increased expression of specific autophagy receptors, such as horses for FMDV? Quantitative, spatiotemporally resolved in vivo models that go beyond LC3-II immunoblots will be necessary to address these problems. In the end, a more thorough knowledge of the mechanisms by which picornaviruses control selective autophagy may provide broad-spectrum antiviral targets that can be used against a variety of livestock infections.
Author Contributions
H.M. (Data Collection and Analysis, Writing—Original Draft), R.L. (Data Collection, Writing—Review & Editing), M.L. (Conceptualization, Writing—Review & Editing). All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
The Open Competition Program of Top Ten Critical Priorities of Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation for the 14th Five-Year Plan of Guangdong Province [2022SDZG02], Natural Science Foundation Project of Fujian Province (2023J01363), the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (grant No. 2024R1066), the Preface Exploration Project of Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (grant No. XTCXQYTS202612).
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:
| AMPK | AMP-activated protein kinase |
| ATF6 | Activating transcription factor 6 |
| ATG | Autophagy-related protein |
| CMA | Chaperone-mediated autophagy |
| DEFs | Duck embryo fibroblasts |
| DFCP1 | Double FYVE-containing protein 1 |
| DHAV | Duck hepatitis A virus |
| EIF2S1 | Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 subunit 1 |
| EMCV | Encephalomyocarditis virus |
| ER | Endoplasmic reticulum |
| FAM134B | Family with sequence similarity 134 member B |
| FMDV | Foot-and-mouth disease virus |
| G3BP1 | Ras-GTPase-activating protein-binding protein 1 |
| GFP | Green fluorescent protein |
| HDAC8 | Histone deacetylase 8 |
| HOPS | Homotypic fusion and protein sorting complex |
| HSP60 | Heat shock protein 60 |
| HSPA1 | Heat shock protein family A member 1 |
| HSPB1 | Heat shock protein family B member 1 |
| IRES | Internal ribosome entry site |
| IRF3 | Interferon regulatory factor 3 |
| ISG | Interferon-stimulated gene |
| LC3 | Microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 |
| LIR | LC3-interacting region |
| lncRNA | Long non-coding RNA |
| LRRC25 | Leucine-rich repeat-containing protein 25 |
| MAPK | Mitogen-activated protein kinase |
| MAVS | Mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein |
| MCL1 | Myeloid cell leukemia 1 |
| MDA5 | Melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5 |
| mTORC1 | Mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase complex 1 |
| NBR1 | Neighbor of BRCA1 gene 1 |
| NDP52 | Nuclear dot protein 52 |
| NF-κB | Nuclear factor kappa B |
| OPTN | Optineurin |
| ORF | Open reading frame |
| PERK | Protein kinase R-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase |
| PI3K | Phosphoinositide 3-kinase |
| PI3KC3 | Class III PI3K |
| PI3P | Phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate |
| RAB | Ras-related protein in brain |
| RIG-I | Retinoic acid-inducible gene I |
| RLR | RIG-I-like receptor |
| RNF144B | Ring finger protein 144B |
| SNAP29 | Synaptosome-associated protein 29 |
| SNARE | Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor |
| STING1 | Stimulator of interferon response cGAMP interactor 1 |
| STX17 | Syntaxin 17 |
| SVV | Seneca Valley virus |
| TBK1 | TANK-binding kinase 1 |
| TMEM39A | Transmembrane protein 39A |
| TOLLIP | Toll-interacting protein |
| TP53 | Tumor protein p53 |
| ULK1 | Unc-51-like autophagy-activating kinase 1 |
| UVRAG | UV radiation resistance-associated gene protein |
| VPg | Viral genome-linked protein |
| WIPI2 | WD repeat domain phosphoinositide-interacting protein 2 |
| YKT6 | Synaptobrevin homolog YKT6 |
| YTHDF2 | YTH domain-containing family protein 2 |
| 3MA | 3-methyladenine |
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