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Omokungbe B, Centurión A, Stiehler S, Morr A, Vilcinskas A, Steinbrink A, Hardes K. Gene silencing in the aedine cell lines C6/36 and U4.4 using long double-stranded RNA. Parasit Vectors 2024; 17:255. [PMID: 38863029 PMCID: PMC11167938 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-024-06340-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND RNA interference (RNAi) is a target-specific gene silencing method that can be used to determine gene functions and investigate host-pathogen interactions, as well as facilitating the development of ecofriendly pesticides. Commercially available transfection reagents (TRs) can improve the efficacy of RNAi. However, we currently lack a product and protocol for the transfection of insect cell lines with long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). METHODS We used agarose gel electrophoresis to determine the capacity of eight TRs to form complexes with long dsRNA. A CellTiter-Glo assay was then used to assess the cytotoxicity of the resulting lipoplexes. We also measured the cellular uptake of dsRNA by fluorescence microscopy using the fluorophore Cy3 as a label. Finally, we analyzed the TRs based on their transfection efficacy and compared the RNAi responses of Aedes albopictus C6/36 and U4.4 cells by knocking down an mCherry reporter Semliki Forest virus in both cell lines. RESULTS The TRs from Biontex (K4, Metafectene Pro, and Metafectene SI+) showed the best complexing capacity and the lowest dsRNA:TR ratio needed for complete complex formation. Only HiPerFect was unable to complex the dsRNA completely, even at a ratio of 1:9. Most of the complexes containing mCherry-dsRNA were nontoxic at 2 ng/µL, but Lipofectamine 2000 was toxic at 1 ng/µL in U4.4 cells and at 2 ng/µL in C6/36 cells. The transfection of U4.4 cells with mCherry-dsRNA/TR complexes achieved significant knockdown of the virus reporter. Comparison of the RNAi response in C6/36 and U4.4 cells suggested that C6/36 cells lack the antiviral RNAi response because there was no significant knockdown of the virus reporter in any of the treatments. CONCLUSIONS C6/36 cells have an impaired RNAi response as previously reported. This investigation provides valuable information for future RNAi experiments by showing how to mitigate the adverse effects attributed to TRs. This will facilitate the judicious selection of TRs and transfection conditions conducive to RNAi research in mosquitoes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bodunrin Omokungbe
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
- Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392, Giessen, Germany
| | - Alejandra Centurión
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, Branch of Bioresources, Ohlebergsweg 12, 35392, Giessen, Germany
| | - Sabrina Stiehler
- Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392, Giessen, Germany
| | - Antonia Morr
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, Branch of Bioresources, Ohlebergsweg 12, 35392, Giessen, Germany
| | - Andreas Vilcinskas
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
- Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392, Giessen, Germany
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, Branch of Bioresources, Ohlebergsweg 12, 35392, Giessen, Germany
| | - Antje Steinbrink
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
- Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392, Giessen, Germany
| | - Kornelia Hardes
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany.
- Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, Branch of Bioresources, Ohlebergsweg 12, 35392, Giessen, Germany.
- BMBF Junior Research Group in Infection Research "ASCRIBE", Ohlebergsweg 12, 35392, Giessen, Germany.
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Plante KS, Plante JA, Azar SR, Shinde DP, Scharton D, Versiani AF, Oliveira da Silva NI, Strange T, Sacchetto L, Fokam EB, Rossi SL, Weaver SC, Marques RE, Nogueira ML, Vasilakis N. Potential of Ilhéus virus to emerge. Heliyon 2024; 10:e27934. [PMID: 38545168 PMCID: PMC10965525 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2023] [Revised: 03/05/2024] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Ilhéus virus (ILHV)(Flaviviridae:Orthoflavivirus) is an arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) endemic to Central and South America and the Caribbean. First isolated in 1944, most of our knowledge derives from surveillance and seroprevalence studies. These efforts have detected ILHV in a broad range of mosquito and vertebrate species, including humans, but laboratory investigations of pathogenesis and vector competence have been lacking. Here, we develop an immune intact murine model with several ages and routes of administration. Our model closely recapitulates human neuroinvasive disease with ILHV strain- and mouse age-specific virulence, as well as a uniformly lethal Ifnar-/- A129 immunocompromised model. Replication kinetics in several vertebrate and invertebrate cell lines demonstrate that ILHV is capable of replicating to high titers in a wide variety of potential host and vector species. Lastly, vector competence studies provide strong evidence for efficient infection of and potential transmission by Aedes species mosquitoes, despite ILHV's phylogenetically clustering with Culex vectored flaviviruses, suggesting ILHV is poised for emergence in the neotropics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth S. Plante
- World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | - Jessica A. Plante
- World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | - Sasha R. Azar
- Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Center for Tissue Engineering, Department of Surgery, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Divya P. Shinde
- World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | - Dionna Scharton
- World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | - Alice F. Versiani
- Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | | | - Taylor Strange
- Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | - Lívia Sacchetto
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Virologia, Departamento de Doenças Dermatológicas, Infecciosas e Parasitárias, Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto, São José do Rio Preto, 15090-000, SP, Brazil
| | - Eric B. Fokam
- Laboratory for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Department of Animal Biology and Conservation, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon
| | - Shannan L. Rossi
- Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Center for Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | - Scott C. Weaver
- World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | - Rafael E. Marques
- Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, 13083-100, SP, Brazil
| | - Mauricio L. Nogueira
- Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Laboratório de Pesquisas em Virologia, Departamento de Doenças Dermatológicas, Infecciosas e Parasitárias, Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto, São José do Rio Preto, 15090-000, SP, Brazil
- Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, 13083-100, SP, Brazil
| | - Nikos Vasilakis
- Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
- Center for Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
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Ribeiro AC, Martins L, Silva H, Freitas MN, Santos M, Gonçalves E, Sousa A, Prazeres I, Santos A, Cruz AC, Silva S, Chiang J, Casseb L, Carvalho V. Viral Interference between the Insect-Specific Virus Brejeira and the Saint Louis Encephalitis Virus In Vitro. Viruses 2024; 16:210. [PMID: 38399986 PMCID: PMC10893346 DOI: 10.3390/v16020210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2023] [Revised: 01/21/2024] [Accepted: 01/27/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The Saint Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) is an encephalitogenic arbovirus (Flaviviridae family) that has a wide geographical distribution in the western hemisphere, especially in the Americas. The negevirus Brejeira (BREV) was isolated for the first time in Brazil in 2005. This study aimed to verify the existence of a possible interfering effect of BREV on the course of SLEV infection and vice versa. We used clone C6/36 cells. Three combinations of MOIs were used (SLEV 0.1 × BREV 1; SLEV 1 × BREV 0.1; SLEV 1 × BREV 1) in the kinetics of up to 7 days and then the techniques of indirect immunofluorescence (IFA), a plaque assay on Vero cells, and RT-PCR were performed. Our results showed that the cytopathic effect (CPE) caused by BREV was more pronounced than the CPE caused by SLEV. Results of IFA, the plaque assay, and RT-PCR showed the suppression of SLEV replication in the co-infection condition in all the MOI combinations used. The SLEV suppression was dose-dependent. Therefore, the ISV Brejeira can suppress SLEV replication in Aedes albopictus cells, but SLEV does not negatively interfere with BREV replication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Cláudia Ribeiro
- Post-Graduation Program in Virology, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (L.M.); (M.N.F.); (A.C.C.); (J.C.); (L.C.)
| | - Lívia Martins
- Post-Graduation Program in Virology, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (L.M.); (M.N.F.); (A.C.C.); (J.C.); (L.C.)
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Heloisa Silva
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Maria Nazaré Freitas
- Post-Graduation Program in Virology, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (L.M.); (M.N.F.); (A.C.C.); (J.C.); (L.C.)
| | - Maissa Santos
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Ercília Gonçalves
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Alana Sousa
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Ivy Prazeres
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Alessandra Santos
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Ana Cecilia Cruz
- Post-Graduation Program in Virology, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (L.M.); (M.N.F.); (A.C.C.); (J.C.); (L.C.)
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Sandro Silva
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Jannifer Chiang
- Post-Graduation Program in Virology, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (L.M.); (M.N.F.); (A.C.C.); (J.C.); (L.C.)
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Livia Casseb
- Post-Graduation Program in Virology, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (L.M.); (M.N.F.); (A.C.C.); (J.C.); (L.C.)
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Valéria Carvalho
- Post-Graduation Program in Virology, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (L.M.); (M.N.F.); (A.C.C.); (J.C.); (L.C.)
- Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua 67030-000, Pará, Brazil; (H.S.); (M.S.); (E.G.); (A.S.); (I.P.); (A.S.); (S.S.)
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Martin MF, Bonaventure B, McCray NE, Peersen OB, Rozen-Gagnon K, Stapleford KA. Distinct chikungunya virus polymerase palm subdomains contribute to virus replication and virion assembly. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.01.15.575630. [PMID: 38293111 PMCID: PMC10827052 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.15.575630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
Alphaviruses encode an error-prone RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), nsP4, required for genome synthesis, yet how the RdRp functions in the complete alphavirus life cycle is not well-defined. Previous work using chikungunya virus (CHIKV) has established the importance of the nsP4 residue cysteine 483 in maintaining viral genetic fidelity. Given the location of residue C483 in the nsP4 palm domain, we hypothesized that other residues within this domain and surrounding subdomains would also contribute to polymerase function. To test this hypothesis, we designed a panel of nsP4 variants via homology modeling based on the Coxsackievirus B3 3 polymerase. We rescued each variant in both mammalian and mosquito cells and discovered that the palm domain and ring finger subdomain contribute to polymerase host-specific replication and genetic stability. Surprisingly, in mosquito cells, these variants in the ring finger and palm domain were replication competent and produced viral structural proteins, but they were unable to produce infectious progeny, indicating a yet uncharacterized role for the polymerase in viral assembly. Finally, we have identified additional residues in the nsP4 palm domain that influence the genetic diversity of the viral progeny, potentially via an alteration in NTP binding and/or discrimination by the polymerase. Taken together, these studies highlight that distinct nsP4 subdomains regulate multiple processes of the alphavirus life cycle, placing nsP4 in a central role during the switch from RNA synthesis to packaging and assembly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie-France Martin
- Department of Microbiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA
| | - Boris Bonaventure
- Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA
| | - Nia E. McCray
- Department of Microbiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA
| | - Olve B. Peersen
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | | | - Kenneth A. Stapleford
- Department of Microbiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA
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Kuno G. Mechanisms of Yellow Fever Transmission: Gleaning the Overlooked Records of Importance and Identifying Problems, Puzzles, Serious Issues, Surprises and Research Questions. Viruses 2024; 16:84. [PMID: 38257784 PMCID: PMC10820296 DOI: 10.3390/v16010084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2023] [Revised: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
In viral disease research, few diseases can compete with yellow fever for the volume of literature, historical significance, richness of the topics and the amount of strong interest among both scientists and laypersons. While the major foci of viral disease research shifted to other more pressing new diseases in recent decades, many critically important basic tasks still remain unfinished for yellow fever. Some of the examples include the mechanisms of transmission, the process leading to outbreak occurrence, environmental factors, dispersal, and viral persistence in nature. In this review, these subjects are analyzed in depth, based on information not only in old but in modern literatures, to fill in blanks and to update the current understanding on these topics. As a result, many valuable facts, ideas, and other types of information that complement the present knowledge were discovered. Very serious questions about the validity of the arbovirus concept and some research practices were also identified. The characteristics of YFV and its pattern of transmission that make this virus unique among viruses transmitted by Ae. aegypti were also explored. Another emphasis was identification of research questions. The discovery of a few historical surprises was an unexpected benefit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Goro Kuno
- Formerly at the Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA
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6
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Li R, Sun K, Tuplin A, Harris M. A structural and functional analysis of opal stop codon translational readthrough during Chikungunya virus replication. J Gen Virol 2023; 104:10.1099/jgv.0.001909. [PMID: 37862073 PMCID: PMC7615711 DOI: 10.1099/jgv.0.001909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus, transmitted by Aedes species mosquitoes. The CHIKV single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome contains two open reading frames, coding for the non-structural (nsP) and structural proteins of the virus. The non-structural polyprotein precursor is proteolytically cleaved to generate nsP1-4. Intriguingly, most isolates of CHIKV (and other alphaviruses) possess an opal stop codon close to the 3' end of the nsP3 coding sequence and translational readthrough is necessary to produce full-length nsP3 and the nsP4 RNA polymerase. Here we investigate the role of this stop codon by replacing the arginine codon with each of the three stop codons in the context of both a subgenomic replicon and infectious CHIKV. Both opal and amber stop codons were tolerated in mammalian cells, but the ochre was not. In mosquito cells all three stop codons were tolerated. Using SHAPE analysis we interrogated the structure of a putative stem loop 3' of the stop codon and used mutagenesis to probe the importance of a short base-paired region at the base of this structure. Our data reveal that this stem is not required for stop codon translational readthrough, and we conclude that other factors must facilitate this process to permit productive CHIKV replication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raymond Li
- School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, and Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2 9JT, UK
| | | | - Andrew Tuplin
- School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, and Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Mark Harris
- School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, and Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2 9JT, UK
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7
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González-Flores AM, Salas-Benito M, Rosales-García VH, Zárate-Segura PB, Del Ángel RM, De Nova-Ocampo MA, Salas-Benito JS. Characterization of Viral Interference in Aedes albopictus C6/36 Cells Persistently Infected with Dengue Virus 2. Pathogens 2023; 12:1135. [PMID: 37764943 PMCID: PMC10536104 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens12091135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Arboviruses are an important group of pathogens that cause diseases of medical and veterinary concern worldwide. The interactions of these viruses with their host cells are complex, and frequently, the coexistence of two different viruses in the same cell results in the inhibition of replication in one of the viruses, which is a phenomenon called viral interference. This phenomenon can be exploited to develop antiviral strategies. Insect cell lines persistently infected with arboviruses are useful models with which to study viral interference. In this work, a model of C6/36-HT cells (from Aedes albopictus mosquitoes) persistently infected with Dengue virus, serotype 2, was used. Viral interference was evaluated via plaque and flow cytometry assays. The presence of heterotypic interference against the other serotypes of the same virus and homologous interference against yellow fever virus was determined; however, this cell line did not display heterologous viral interference against Sindbis virus. The mechanisms responsible for viral interference have not been fully elucidated, but small RNAs could be involved. However, the silencing of Ago3, a key protein in the genome-derived P-element-induced wimpy testis pathway, did not alter the viral interference process, suggesting that viral interference occurs independent of this pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mariana Salas-Benito
- Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Homeopatía, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City 07320, Mexico; (M.S.-B.); (M.A.D.N.-O.)
| | - Victor Hugo Rosales-García
- Laboratorios Centrales, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Mexico City 07360, Mexico;
| | | | - Rosa María Del Ángel
- Departamento de Infectómica y Patogénesis Molecular, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Mexico City 07360, Mexico;
| | - Mónica Ascención De Nova-Ocampo
- Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Homeopatía, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City 07320, Mexico; (M.S.-B.); (M.A.D.N.-O.)
| | - Juan Santiago Salas-Benito
- Escuela Nacional de Medicina y Homeopatía, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City 07320, Mexico; (M.S.-B.); (M.A.D.N.-O.)
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Leggewie M, Scherer C, Altinli M, Gestuveo RJ, Sreenu VB, Fuss J, Vazeille M, Mousson L, Badusche M, Kohl A, Failloux AB, Schnettler E. The Aedes aegypti RNA interference response against Zika virus in the context of co-infection with dengue and chikungunya viruses. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2023; 17:e0011456. [PMID: 37440582 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Since its detection in 2015 in Brazil, Zika virus (ZIKV) has remained in the spotlight of international public health and research as an emerging arboviral pathogen. In addition to single infection, ZIKV may occur in co-infection with dengue (DENV) and chikungunya (CHIKV) viruses, with whom ZIKV shares geographic distribution and the mosquito Aedes aegypti as a vector. The main mosquito immune response against arboviruses is RNA interference (RNAi). It is unknown whether or not the dynamics of the RNAi response differ between single arboviral infections and co-infections. In this study, we investigated the interaction of ZIKV and DENV, as well as ZIKV and CHIKV co-infections with the RNAi response in Ae. aegypti. Using small RNA sequencing, we found that the efficiency of small RNA production against ZIKV -a hallmark of antiviral RNAi-was mostly similar when comparing single and co-infections with either DENV or CHIKV. Silencing of key antiviral RNAi proteins, showed no change in effect on ZIKV replication when the cell is co-infected with ZIKV and DENV or CHIKV. Interestingly, we observed a negative effect on ZIKV replication during CHIKV co-infection in the context of Ago2-knockout cells, though his effect was absent during DENV co-infection. Overall, this study provides evidence that ZIKV single or co-infections with CHIKV or DENV are equally controlled by RNAi responses. Thus, Ae. aegypti mosquitoes and derived cells support co-infections of ZIKV with either CHIKV or DENV to a similar level than single infections, as long as the RNAi response is functional.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mayke Leggewie
- Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
- German Center for Infection; Research (DZIF), partner site Hamburg-Luebeck-Borstel-Riems, Germany
| | - Christina Scherer
- Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
- German Center for Infection; Research (DZIF), partner site Hamburg-Luebeck-Borstel-Riems, Germany
| | - Mine Altinli
- Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
- German Center for Infection; Research (DZIF), partner site Hamburg-Luebeck-Borstel-Riems, Germany
| | - Rommel J Gestuveo
- MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines
| | - Vattipally B Sreenu
- MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Janina Fuss
- Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB), Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
| | - Marie Vazeille
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Arboviruses and Insect Vectors, Paris, France
| | - Laurence Mousson
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Arboviruses and Insect Vectors, Paris, France
| | - Marlis Badusche
- Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Alain Kohl
- MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Anna-Bella Failloux
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Arboviruses and Insect Vectors, Paris, France
| | - Esther Schnettler
- Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
- German Center for Infection; Research (DZIF), partner site Hamburg-Luebeck-Borstel-Riems, Germany
- University Hamburg, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, Hamburg, Germany
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9
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Airs PM, Kudrna KE, Lubinski B, Phanse Y, Bartholomay LC. A Comparative Analysis of RNAi Trigger Uptake and Distribution in Mosquito Vectors of Disease. INSECTS 2023; 14:556. [PMID: 37367372 DOI: 10.3390/insects14060556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2023] [Revised: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023]
Abstract
In mosquitoes, the utilization of RNAi for functional genetics is widespread, usually mediated through introduced double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) with sequence identity to a gene of interest. However, RNAi in mosquitoes is often hampered by inconsistencies in target gene knockdown between experimental setups. While the core RNAi pathway is known to function in most mosquito strains, the uptake and biodistribution of dsRNAs across different mosquito species and life stages have yet to be extensively explored as a source of variation in RNAi experiments. To better understand mosquito-RNAi dynamics, the biodistribution of a dsRNA to a heterologous gene, LacZ (iLacZ), was tracked following various routes of exposure in the larval and adult stages of Aedes aegypti, Anopheles gambiae, and Culex pipiens. iLacZ was largely limited to the gut lumen when exposed per os, or to the cuticle when topically applied, but spread through the hemocoel when injected. Uptake of dsRNA was noted in a subset of cells including: hemocytes, pericardial cells of the dorsal vessel, ovarian follicles, and ganglia of the ventral nerve cord. These cell types are all known to undergo phagocytosis, pinocytosis, or both, and as such may actively take up RNAi triggers. In Ae. aegypti, iLacZ was detected for up to one week post exposure by Northern blotting, but uptake and degradation drastically differed across tissues. The results presented here reveal that the uptake of RNAi triggers is distinct and specific to the cell type in vivo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul M Airs
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Katherine E Kudrna
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Bailey Lubinski
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Yashdeep Phanse
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Lyric C Bartholomay
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
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10
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Joseph RE, Bozic J, Werling KL, Urakova N, Rasgon JL. Eilat virus (EILV) causes superinfection exclusion against West NILE virus (WNV) in a strain specific manner in Culex tarsalis mosquitoes. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.25.542294. [PMID: 37292979 PMCID: PMC10245884 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.25.542294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
West Nile virus (WNV) is the leading cause of mosquito-borne illness in the United States. There are currently no human vaccines or therapies available for WNV, and vector control is the primary strategy used to control WNV transmission. The WNV vector Culex tarsalis is also a competent host for the insect-specific virus (ISV) Eilat virus (EILV). ISVs such as EILV can interact with and cause superinfection exclusion (SIE) against human pathogenic viruses in their shared mosquito host, altering vector competence for these pathogenic viruses. The ability to cause SIE and their host restriction make ISVs a potentially safe tool to target mosquito-borne pathogenic viruses. In the present study, we tested whether EILV causes SIE against WNV in mosquito C6/36 cells and Culex tarsalis mosquitoes. The titers of both WNV strains-WN02-1956 and NY99-were suppressed by EILV in C6/36 cells as early as 48-72 h post superinfection at both multiplicity of infections (MOIs) tested in our study. The titers of WN02-1956 at both MOIs remained suppressed in C6/36 cells, whereas those of NY99 showed some recovery towards the final timepoint. The mechanism of SIE remains unknown, but EILV was found to interfere with NY99 attachment in C6/36 cells, potentially contributing to the suppression of NY99 titers. However, EILV had no effect on the attachment of WN02-1956 or internalization of either WNV strain under superinfection conditions. In Cx. tarsalis, EILV did not affect the infection rate of either WNV strain at either timepoint. However, in mosquitoes, EILV enhanced NY99 infection titers at 3 days post superinfection, but this effect disappeared at 7 days post superinfection. In contrast, WN02-1956 infection titers were suppressed by EILV at 7 days post-superinfection. The dissemination and transmission of both WNV strains were not affected by superinfection with EILV at either timepoint. Overall, EILV caused SIE against both WNV strains in C6/36 cells; however, in Cx. tarsalis, SIE caused by EILV was strain specific potentially owing to differences in the rate of depletion of shared resources by the individual WNV strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renuka E. Joseph
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
- Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
- The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
| | - Jovana Bozic
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
- Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
| | - Kristine L. Werling
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
- Current affiliation: Sherlock Biosciences, Watertown, Massachusetts, United States
| | - Nadya Urakova
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
- Current affiliation: Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Jason L. Rasgon
- Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
- Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
- The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
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11
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Sun B, Ni M, Liu H, Liu D. Viral intra-host evolutionary dynamics revealed via serial passage of Japanese encephalitis virus in vitro. Virus Evol 2023; 9:veac103. [PMID: 37205166 PMCID: PMC10185921 DOI: 10.1093/ve/veac103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2022] [Revised: 10/04/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Analyses of viral inter- and intra-host mutations could better guide the prevention and control of infectious diseases. For a long time, studies on viral evolution have focused on viral inter-host variations. Next-generation sequencing has accelerated the investigations of viral intra-host diversity. However, the theoretical basis and dynamic characteristics of viral intra-host mutations remain unknown. Here, using serial passages of the SA14-14-2 vaccine strain of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) as the in vitro model, the distribution characteristics of 1,788 detected intra-host single-nucleotide variations (iSNVs) and their mutated frequencies from 477 deep-sequenced samples were analyzed. Our results revealed that in adaptive (baby hamster kidney (BHK)) cells, JEV is under a nearly neutral selection pressure, and both non-synonymous and synonymous mutations represent an S-shaped growth trend over time. A higher positive selection pressure was observed in the nonadaptive (C6/36) cells, and logarithmic growth in non-synonymous iSNVs and linear growth in synonymous iSNVs were observed over time. Moreover, the mutation rates of the NS4B protein and the untranslated region (UTR) of the JEV are significantly different between BHK and C6/36 cells, suggesting that viral selection pressure is regulated by different cellular environments. In addition, no significant difference was detected in the distribution of mutated frequencies of iSNVs between BHK and C6/36 cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bangyao Sun
- School of Medical Laboratory, Weifang Medical University, Baotong West Street, Weifang 261053, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiaohongshan 44#, Wuhan 430000, China
- Computational Virology Group, Center for Bacteria and Viruses Resources and Bioinformation, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiaohongshan 44#, Wuhan 430000, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Road 19#, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Ming Ni
- Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Taiping Road 27#, Beijing 100850, China
| | - Haizhou Liu
- Computational Virology Group, Center for Bacteria and Viruses Resources and Bioinformation, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiaohongshan 44#, Wuhan 430000, China
| | - Di Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiaohongshan 44#, Wuhan 430000, China
- Computational Virology Group, Center for Bacteria and Viruses Resources and Bioinformation, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiaohongshan 44#, Wuhan 430000, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Road 19#, Beijing 100049, China
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12
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Blair CD. A Brief History of the Discovery of RNA-Mediated Antiviral Immune Defenses in Vector Mosquitos. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 2023; 87:e0019121. [PMID: 36511720 PMCID: PMC10029339 DOI: 10.1128/mmbr.00191-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) persist in a natural cycle that includes infections of humans or other vertebrates and transmission between vertebrates by infected arthropods, most commonly mosquitos. Arboviruses can cause serious, sometimes fatal diseases in humans and other vertebrates but cause little pathology in their mosquito vectors. Knowledge of the interactions between mosquito vectors and the arboviruses that they transmit is an important facet of developing schemes to control transmission. Mosquito innate immune responses to virus infection modulate virus replication in the vector, and understanding the components and mechanisms of the immune response could lead to improved methods for interrupting the transmission cycle. The most important aspect of mosquito antiviral defense is the exogenous small interfering RNA (exo-siRNA) pathway, one arm of the RNA interference (RNAi) silencing response. Our research as well as that of many other groups over the past 25 years to define this pathway are reviewed here. A more recently recognized but less well-understood RNA-mediated mosquito defense against arbovirus infections, the PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway, is also described.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carol D Blair
- Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
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13
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Azerigyik FA, Faizah AN, Kobayashi D, Amoa-Bosompem M, Matsumura R, Kai I, Sasaki T, Higa Y, Isawa H, Iwanaga S, Ishino T. Evaluating the mosquito host range of Getah virus and the vector competence of selected medically important mosquitoes in Getah virus transmission. Parasit Vectors 2023; 16:99. [PMID: 36922882 PMCID: PMC10015795 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-023-05713-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The Getah virus (GETV) is a mosquito-borne Alphavirus (family Togaviridae) that is of significant importance in veterinary medicine. It has been associated with major polyarthritis outbreaks in animals, but there are insufficient data on its clinical symptoms in humans. Serological evidence of GETV exposure and the risk of zoonotic transmission makes GETV a potentially medically relevant arbovirus. However, minimal emphasis has been placed on investigating GETV vector transmission, which limits current knowledge of the factors facilitating the spread and outbreaks of GETV. METHODS To examine the range of the mosquito hosts of GETV, we selected medically important mosquitoes, assessed them in vitro and in vivo and determined their relative competence in virus transmission. The susceptibility and growth kinetics of GETVs in various mosquito-derived cell lines were also determined and quantified using plaque assays. Vector competency assays were also conducted, and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR and plaque assays were used to determine the susceptibility and transmission capacity of each mosquito species evaluated in this study. RESULTS GETV infection in all of the investigated mosquito cell lines resulted in detectable cytopathic effects. GETV reproduced the fastest in Culex tritaeniorhynchus- and Aedes albopictus-derived cell lines, as evidenced by the highest exponential titers we observed. Regarding viral RNA copy numbers, mosquito susceptibility to infection, spread, and transmission varied significantly between species. The highest vector competency indices for infection, dissemination and transmission were obtained for Cx. tritaeniorhynchus. This is the first study to investigate the ability of Ae. albopictus and Anopheles stephensi to transmit GETV, and the results emphasize the role and capacity of other mosquito species to transmit GETV upon exposure to GETV, in addition to the perceived vectors from which GETV has been isolated in nature. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights the importance of GETV vector competency studies to determine all possible transmission vectors, especially in endemic regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Faustus Akankperiwen Azerigyik
- Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Astri Nur Faizah
- Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Daisuke Kobayashi
- Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Michael Amoa-Bosompem
- Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Ryo Matsumura
- Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Izumi Kai
- Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Toshinori Sasaki
- Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yukiko Higa
- Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Haruhiko Isawa
- Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
| | - Shiroh Iwanaga
- Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Molecular Protozoology, Research Center for Infectious Disease Control, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Tomoko Ishino
- Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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14
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Koh JX, Masomian M, Anasir MI, Ong SK, Poh CL. Insights into In Vitro Adaptation of EV71 and Analysis of Reduced Virulence by In Silico Predictions. Vaccines (Basel) 2023; 11:vaccines11030629. [PMID: 36992213 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11030629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2023] [Revised: 03/01/2023] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023] Open
Abstract
EV-A71 is a common viral pathogen that causes hand, foot and mouth disease. It is a single-stranded RNA virus that has a low fidelity RNA polymerase and, as a result, spontaneous mutations frequently occur in the EV-A71 genome. The mutations within the genome give rise to quasispecies within the viral population that could be further defined by haplotypes. In vitro virulence of EV-A71 was shown by plaque size in Rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells, which was substantiated by in vitro characterizations of growth, RNA replication, binding, attachment and host cell internalization. Viruses could exhibit different host cell adaptations in different cell lines during viral passaging. The EV-A71/WT (derived from EV-A71 subgenotype B4) was shown to comprise six haplotypes through next-generation sequencing, where only EV-A71/Hap2 was found to be cultivable in RD cells, while EV-A71/Hap4 was the only cultivable haplotype in Vero cells. The EV-A71/WT produced plaques of four different sizes (small, medium, big, huge) in RD cells, while only two plaque variants (small, medium) were present in Vero cells. The small plaque variant isolated from RD cells displayed lower RNA replication rates, slower in vitro growth kinetics, higher TCID50 and lower attachment, binding and entry ability when compared against EV-A71/WT due to the mutation at 3D-S228P that disrupted the active site of the RNA polymerase, resulting in low replication and growth of the variant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Xuen Koh
- Centre for Virus and Vaccine Research, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya 47500, Selangor, Malaysia
| | - Malihe Masomian
- Research and Development Department, Pure Biologics SA, Duńska 11, 54-427 Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Mohd Ishtiaq Anasir
- Virology Unit, Infectious Disease Research Center, Institute for Medical Research, National Institutes of Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Shah Alam 40170, Selangor, Malaysia
| | - Seng-Kai Ong
- Department of Biological Sciences, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya 47500, Selangor, Malaysia
| | - Chit Laa Poh
- Centre for Virus and Vaccine Research, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya 47500, Selangor, Malaysia
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15
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Insect-Specific Chimeric Viruses Potentiated Antiviral Responses and Inhibited Pathogenic Alphavirus Growth in Mosquito Cells. Microbiol Spectr 2023; 11:e0361322. [PMID: 36511715 PMCID: PMC9927327 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.03613-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Most alphaviruses are transmitted by mosquito vectors and infect a wide range of vertebrate hosts, with a few exceptions. Eilat virus (EILV) in this genus is characterized by a host range restricted to mosquitoes. Its chimeric viruses have been developed as safe and effective vaccine candidates and diagnostic tools. Here, we investigated the interactions between these insect-specific viruses (ISVs) and mosquito cells, unveiling their potential roles in determining vector competence and arbovirus transmission. By RNA sequencing, we found that these ISVs profoundly modified host cell gene expression profiles. Two EILV-based chimeras, consisting of EILV's nonstructural genes and the structural genes of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) or Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV), namely, EILV/CHIKV (E/C) and EILV/VEEV (E/V), induced more intensive transcriptome regulation than parental EILV and activated different antiviral mechanisms in host cells. We demonstrated that E/C robustly promoted antimicrobial peptide production and E/V strongly upregulated the RNA interference pathway components. This also highlighted the intrinsic divergences between CHIKV and VEEV, representatives of the Old World and New World alphaviruses. In contrast, EILV triggered a limited antiviral response. We further showed that initial chimera infections efficiently inhibited subsequent pathogenic alphavirus replication, especially in the case of E/V infection, which almost prevented VEEV and Sindbis virus (SINV) superinfections. Altogether our study provided valuable information on developing ISVs as biological control agents. IMPORTANCE Mosquito-borne alphaviruses can cause emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, posing a considerable threat to human and animal health worldwide. However, no specific antivirals or commercial vaccines are currently available. Therefore, it is vital to develop biological control measures to contain virus transmission. Insect-specific EILV and its chimeras are supposed to induce superinfection exclusion owing to the close phylogenetical relationship with pathogenic alphaviruses. These viruses might also, like bacterial symbionts, modulate mosquito hosts' vector competence for arboviruses. However, little is known about the responses of mosquitoes or mosquito cells to ISV infections. Here, we found that EILV barely elicited antiviral defenses in host cells, while its chimeras, namely, E/C and E/V, potentiated the responses via different mechanisms. Furthermore, we showed that initial chimera infections could largely inhibit subsequent pathogenic alphavirus infections. Taken together, our study proposed insect-specific chimeras as a promising candidate for developing biological control measures against pathogenic alphaviruses.
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16
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The Involvement of Atlastin in Dengue Virus and Wolbachia Infection in Aedes aegypti and Its Regulation by aae-miR-989. Microbiol Spectr 2022; 10:e0225822. [PMID: 36165808 PMCID: PMC9603060 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02258-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-shaping atlastin proteins (ATLs) have been demonstrated to play a functional role during flavivirus replication in mammalian cells. For dengue virus (DENV), atlastin is required in the formation of the replication organelles and RNA replication, virion assembly, production of the infectious virus particles, and trafficking or directing the association of vesicle packets with furin. Here, we investigated the involvement of atlastin in DENV replication in the mosquito Aedes aegypti and explored the possibility of its manipulation by the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia to interfere with DENV replication. Results showed the expression of Ae. aegypti atlastin gene (AaATL) was upregulated in DENV-infected Aag2 cells, and its silencing led to reduced DENV replication. Contrary to our assumption that AaATL could be downregulated by Wolbachia, we did not find evidence for that in Wolbachia-infected cell lines, but this was the case in mosquitoes. Further, silencing AaATL did not have any effect on Wolbachia density. Our results also suggest that aae-miR-989 miRNA negatively regulates AaATL. The oversupply of the miRNA mimic led to reduced DENV replication consistent with the positive role of AaATL in DENV replication. Overall, the results favor AaATL's involvement in DENV replication; however, there is no support that the protein is involved in Wolbachia-mediated DENV inhibition. In addition, the results contribute to discerning further possible overlapping functions of ATLs in mosquitoes and mammalian cells. IMPORTANCE Atlastin is a protein associated with the endoplasmic reticulum and has been shown to play a role in replication of flaviviruses in mammalian cells. This study aimed to investigate the role of mosquito Aedes aegypti atlastin (AaATL) in dengue virus replication and maintenance of Wolbachia, an endosymbiotic bacterium, in the mosquito. Our results suggest that AaATL facilitates dengue virus replication in mosquito cells, considering silencing the gene led to reductions in virus replication and virion production. Further, AaATL was found to be regulated by a mosquito microRNA, aae-miR-989. Despite an effect on dengue virus, AaATL silencing did not affect Wolbachia replication and maintenance in mosquito cells. The results shed light on the role of atlastins in mosquito-pathogen interactions and their overlapping roles in mosquito and mammalian cells.
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17
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Colmant AMG, Charrel RN, Coutard B. Jingmenviruses: Ubiquitous, understudied, segmented flavi-like viruses. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:997058. [PMID: 36299728 PMCID: PMC9589506 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.997058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Jingmenviruses are a group of viruses identified recently, in 2014, and currently classified by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses as unclassified Flaviviridae. These viruses closely related to flaviviruses are unique due to the segmented nature of their genome. The prototype jingmenvirus, Jingmen tick virus (JMTV), was discovered in Rhipicephalus microplus ticks collected from China in 2010. Jingmenviruses genomes are composed of four to five segments, encoding for up to seven structural proteins and two non-structural proteins, both of which display strong similarities with flaviviral non-structural proteins (NS2B/NS3 and NS5). Jingmenviruses are currently separated into two phylogenetic clades. One clade includes tick- and vertebrate-associated jingmenviruses, which have been detected in ticks and mosquitoes, as well as in humans, cattle, monkeys, bats, rodents, sheep, and tortoises. In addition to these molecular and serological detections, over a hundred human patients tested positive for jingmenviruses after developing febrile illness and flu-like symptoms in China and Serbia. The second phylogenetic clade includes insect-associated jingmenvirus sequences, which have been detected in a wide range of insect species, as well as in crustaceans, plants, and fungi. In addition to being found in various types of hosts, jingmenviruses are endemic, as they have been detected in a wide range of environments, all over the world. Taken together, all of these elements show that jingmenviruses correspond exactly to the definition of emerging viruses at risk of causing a pandemic, since they are already endemic, have a close association with arthropods, are found in animals in close contact with humans, and have caused sporadic cases of febrile illness in multiple patients. Despite these arguments, the vast majority of published data is from metagenomics studies and many aspects of jingmenvirus replication remain to be elucidated, such as their tropism, cycle of transmission, structure, and mechanisms of replication and restriction or epidemiology. It is therefore crucial to prioritize jingmenvirus research in the years to come, to be prepared for their emergence as human or veterinary pathogens.
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18
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Expressing the Pro-Apoptotic Reaper Protein via Insertion into the Structural Open Reading Frame of Sindbis Virus Reduces the Ability to Infect Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes. Viruses 2022; 14:v14092035. [PMID: 36146841 PMCID: PMC9501589 DOI: 10.3390/v14092035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Arboviruses continue to threaten a significant portion of the human population, and a better understanding is needed of the determinants of successful arbovirus infection of arthropod vectors. Avoiding apoptosis has been shown to be one such determinant. Previous work showed that a Sindbis virus (SINV) construct called MRE/rpr that expresses the Drosophila pro-apoptotic protein Reaper via a duplicated subgenomic promoter had a reduced ability to orally infect Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at 3 days post-blood meal (PBM), but this difference diminished over time as virus variants containing deletions in the inserted reaper gene rapidly predominated. In order to further clarify the effect of midgut apoptosis on disseminated infection in Ae. aegypti, we constructed MRE/rprORF, a version of SINV containing reaper inserted into the structural open reading frame (ORF) as an in-frame fusion. MRE/rprORF successfully expressed Reaper, replicated similarly to MRE/rpr in cell lines, induced apoptosis in cultured cells, and caused increased effector caspase activity in mosquito midgut tissue. Mosquitoes that fed on blood containing MRE/rprORF developed significantly less midgut and disseminated infection when compared to MRE/rpr or a control virus up to at least 7 days PBM, when less than 50% of mosquitoes that ingested MRE/rprORF had detectable disseminated infection, compared with around 80% or more of mosquitoes fed with MRE/rpr or control virus. However, virus titer in the minority of mosquitoes that became infected with MRE/rprORF was not significantly different from control virus. Deep sequencing of virus populations from ten mosquitoes infected with MRE/rprORF indicated that the reaper insert was stable, with only a small number of point mutations and no deletions being observed at frequencies greater than 1%. Our results indicate that expression of Reaper by this method significantly reduces infection prevalence, but if infection is established then Reaper expression has limited ability to continue to suppress replication.
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19
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de Malmanche H, Hussain M, Marcellin E, Reid S, Asgari S. Knockout of Dicer-2 in the Sf9 cell line enhances the replication of Spodoptera frugiperda rhabdovirus and conditionally increases baculovirus replication. J Gen Virol 2022; 103. [PMID: 36018884 DOI: 10.1099/jgv.0.001779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Sf9 cell line, originally isolated from the ovarian tissue of Spodoptera frugiperda larvae, is widely used in academia and industry for the baculovirus-mediated production of recombinant proteins and virus-like particles. RNA interference (RNAi) is a conserved antiviral pathway present in eukaryotic organisms and is the primary antiviral defence mechanism in insects. Recent evidence has implicated RNAi as an antiviral response to baculovirus infection in Sf9 cells. To test this hypothesis, CRISPR/Cas9 technology was used to disable the RNAi pathway in Sf9 cells by knocking out Dicer-2, the protein responsible for cleaving viral double-stranded RNA precursors into short interfering RNAs. Infection of Dicer-2 knockout Sf9 cells with either the wild-type baculovirus Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), recombinant AcMNPV (rAcMNPV) expressing β-galactosidase (β-gal), or rAcMNPV expressing a wasp venom protein (Vn50) at a multiplicity of infection (m.o.i.) of 1 resulted in a modest increase in virus replication compared to control Sf9 cells under adherent culture conditions. In contrast, Dicer-2 knockout Sf9 monolayer or suspension cultures infected by the rAcMNPV expressing β-gal at higher m.o.i.s (3.5 and 20) did not exhibit increases in either viral DNA replication or β-gal production. Intriguingly, during long-term passaging in suspension, Dicer-2 knockout Sf9 cultures underwent transient crashes in cell proliferation and viability. It was discovered that these periods of low growth and viability coincided with a dramatic increase in the RNA levels of S. frugiperda rhabdovirus, a recently identified adventitious virus that persistently infects the Sf9 cell line, suggesting a role for Dicer-2 in managing chronic viral infections in this industrially relevant insect cell line.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry de Malmanche
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Mazhar Hussain
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Esteban Marcellin
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Steve Reid
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Sassan Asgari
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
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20
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Tng PYL, Carabajal Paladino LZ, Anderson MAE, Adelman ZN, Fragkoudis R, Noad R, Alphey L. Intron-derived small RNAs for silencing viral RNAs in mosquito cells. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2022; 16:e0010548. [PMID: 35737714 PMCID: PMC9258879 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Revised: 07/06/2022] [Accepted: 06/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus are the main vectors of mosquito-borne viruses of medical and veterinary significance. Many of these viruses have RNA genomes. Exogenously provided, e.g. transgene encoded, small RNAs could be used to inhibit virus replication, breaking the transmission cycle. We tested, in Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus cell lines, reporter-based strategies for assessing the ability of two types of small RNAs to inhibit a chikungunya virus (CHIKV) derived target. Both types of small RNAs use a Drosophila melanogaster pre-miRNA-1 based hairpin for their expression, either with perfect base-pairing in the stem region (shRNA-like) or containing two mismatches (miRNA-like). The pre-miRNA-1 stem loop structure was encoded within an intron; this allows co-expression of one or more proteins, e.g. a fluorescent protein marker tracking the temporal and spatial expression of the small RNAs in vivo. Three reporter-based systems were used to assess the relative silencing efficiency of ten shRNA-like siRNAs and corresponding miRNA-like designs. Two systems used a luciferase reporter RNA with CHIKV RNA inserted either in the coding sequence or within the 3’ UTR. A third reporter used a CHIKV derived split replication system. All three reporters demonstrated that while silencing could be achieved with both miRNA-like and shRNA-like designs, the latter were substantially more effective. Dcr-2 was required for the shRNA-like siRNAs as demonstrated by loss of inhibition of the reporters in Dcr-2 deficient cell lines. These positive results in cell culture are encouraging for the potential use of this pre-miRNA-1-based system in transgenic mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are important globally, spreading viral diseases worldwide. Chikungunya virus causes epidemics of disease in people. Here we have investigated using two types of small RNAs and pathways inherent in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to target a piece of the chikungunya virus’s genome, potentially preventing viral replication. We express these small RNAs using a pre-miRNA-1 based system, inserted into the intron within a commonly used promoter. We have used reporter systems in cell lines which can give preliminary indications of how these systems might work in mosquitoes. Our results indicate that short-hairpin-like designs are more effective than micro-RNA-like designs at knocking down expression of their targets. This knock-down requires Dcr-2 indicating that the short-hairpin-like RNAs are likely using the endo-siRNA pathway to degrade mRNA which contains their complementary RNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Priscilla Y. L. Tng
- Arthropod Genetics Group, The Pirbright Institute, Pirbright, United Kingdom
- Pathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Zach N. Adelman
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America
| | - Rennos Fragkoudis
- Arbovirus Pathogenesis Group, The Pirbright Institute, Pirbright, United Kingdom
| | - Rob Noad
- Pathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, United Kingdom
| | - Luke Alphey
- Arthropod Genetics Group, The Pirbright Institute, Pirbright, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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21
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Vasconcellos AF, Melo RM, Mandacaru SC, de Oliveira LS, de Oliveira AS, Moraes ECDS, Trugilho MRDO, Ricart CAO, Báo SN, Resende RO, Charneau S. Aedes aegypti Aag-2 Cell Proteome Modulation in Response to Chikungunya Virus Infection. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2022; 12:920425. [PMID: 35782121 PMCID: PMC9240781 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.920425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Accepted: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a single-stranded positive RNA virus that belongs to the genus Alphavirus and is transmitted to humans by infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus bites. In humans, CHIKV usually causes painful symptoms during acute and chronic stages of infection. Conversely, virus–vector interaction does not disturb the mosquito’s fitness, allowing a persistent infection. Herein, we studied CHIKV infection of Ae. aegypti Aag-2 cells (multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.1) for 48 h through label-free quantitative proteomic analysis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM images showed a high load of intracellular viral cargo at 48 h postinfection (hpi), as well as an unusual elongated mitochondria morphology that might indicate a mitochondrial imbalance. Proteome analysis revealed 196 regulated protein groups upon infection, which are related to protein synthesis, energy metabolism, signaling pathways, and apoptosis. These Aag-2 proteins regulated during CHIKV infection might have roles in antiviral and/or proviral mechanisms and the balance between viral propagation and the survival of host cells, possibly leading to the persistent infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Fernanda Vasconcellos
- Laboratory of Biochemistry and Protein Chemistry, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
| | - Reynaldo Magalhães Melo
- Laboratory of Biochemistry and Protein Chemistry, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
| | - Samuel Coelho Mandacaru
- Laboratory of Toxinology and Center for Technological Development in Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Lucas Silva de Oliveira
- Laboratory of Biochemistry and Protein Chemistry, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
| | - Athos Silva de Oliveira
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
| | | | | | - Carlos André Ornelas Ricart
- Laboratory of Biochemistry and Protein Chemistry, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
| | - Sônia Nair Báo
- Laboratory of Microscopy and Microanalysis, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
| | - Renato Oliveira Resende
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
- *Correspondence: Sébastien Charneau, ; Renato Oliveira Resende,
| | - Sébastien Charneau
- Laboratory of Biochemistry and Protein Chemistry, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
- *Correspondence: Sébastien Charneau, ; Renato Oliveira Resende,
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22
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Colmant AMG, Furlong MJ, Etebari K. Discovery of a Novel Jingmenvirus in Australian Sugarcane Soldier Fly ( Inopus flavus) Larvae. Viruses 2022; 14:v14061140. [PMID: 35746612 PMCID: PMC9229714 DOI: 10.3390/v14061140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Revised: 05/03/2022] [Accepted: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
In Australia, soldier flies are major pests of sugarcane, and they can cause significant yield losses in some areas, possibly due to the virus’ transmission to the plants. We sequenced fly larvae salivary glands and identified a novel jingmenvirus, putatively named Inopus flavus jingmenvirus 1 (IFJV1). Phylogenetic trees confirmed that IFJV1 groups with insect-associated jingmenviruses, newly identified flavivirus-like viruses with a segmented genome. After the design and the validation of molecular detection systems for IFJV1, larval homogenates were passaged on insect and vertebrate cells, but IFJV1 could only be detected in the first two passages in insect cells and not at all in vertebrate cells. Despite this lack of consistent replication in laboratory models, this virus does replicate in its host Inopus flavus, as sequenced, small RNA from the larvae matched the IFJV1 sequences. Moreover, they were found to be predominantly 21 nucleotides long and map to the whole sequences on both strands, which is typical of an actively replicating virus. This discovery confirms the worldwide presence of jingmenviruses which, until now, had only been detected on four continents. However, the study of IFJV1 tropism and the possible pathogenicity to its host or the sugarcane it parasitizes requires the development of a stable replication model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agathe M. G. Colmant
- Unité des Virus Émergents (UVE: Aix-Marseille Univ-IRD 190-Inserm 1207), 13005 Marseille, France;
- Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Michael J. Furlong
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
- Correspondence: (M.J.F.); (K.E.)
| | - Kayvan Etebari
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
- Correspondence: (M.J.F.); (K.E.)
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23
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Mohamed-Romai-Noor NA, Sam SS, Teoh BT, Hamim ZR, AbuBakar S. Genomic and In Vitro Phenotypic Comparisons of Epidemic and Non-Epidemic Getah Virus Strains. Viruses 2022; 14:v14050942. [PMID: 35632684 PMCID: PMC9145621 DOI: 10.3390/v14050942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2022] [Revised: 04/15/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Getah virus is an emerging mosquito-borne animal pathogen. Four phylogenetic groups of GETV, Group I (GI), GII, GIII and GIV, were identified. However, only the GETV GIII was associated with disease epidemics suggesting possible virulence difference in this virus group. Here, we compared the genetic and in vitro phenotypic characteristics between the epidemic and non-epidemic GETV. Our complete coding genome sequence analyses revealed several amino acid substitutions unique to the GETV GIII and GIV groups, which were found mainly in the hypervariable domain of nsP3 and E2 proteins. Replication kinetics of the epidemic (GIII MI-110 and GIII 14-I-605) and non-epidemic GETV strains (prototype GI MM2021 and GIV B254) were compared in mammalian Vero cells and mosquito C6/36 and U4.4 cells. In all cells used, both epidemic GETV GIII MI-110 and GIII 14-I-605 strains showed replication rates and mean maximum titers at least 2.7-fold and 2.3-fold higher than those of GIV B254, respectively (Bonferroni posttest, p < 0.01). In Vero cells, the epidemic GETV strains caused more pronounced cytopathic effects in comparison to the GIV B254. Our findings suggest that higher virus replication competency that produces higher virus titers during infection may be the main determinant of virulence and epidemic potential of GETV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noor-Adila Mohamed-Romai-Noor
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia; (N.-A.M.-R.-N.); (B.-T.T.); (Z.-R.H.)
- Institute for Advanced Studies, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
| | - Sing-Sin Sam
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia; (N.-A.M.-R.-N.); (B.-T.T.); (Z.-R.H.)
- Correspondence: (S.-S.S.); (S.A.)
| | - Boon-Teong Teoh
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia; (N.-A.M.-R.-N.); (B.-T.T.); (Z.-R.H.)
| | - Zur-Raiha Hamim
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia; (N.-A.M.-R.-N.); (B.-T.T.); (Z.-R.H.)
- Institute for Advanced Studies, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
| | - Sazaly AbuBakar
- Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia; (N.-A.M.-R.-N.); (B.-T.T.); (Z.-R.H.)
- Correspondence: (S.-S.S.); (S.A.)
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24
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Loquacious modulates flaviviral RNA replication in mosquito cells. PLoS Pathog 2022; 18:e1010163. [PMID: 35482886 PMCID: PMC9089905 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 05/10/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Arthropod-borne viruses infect both mosquito and mammalian hosts. While much is known about virus-host interactions that modulate viral gene expression in their mammalian host, much less is known about the interactions that involve inhibition, subversion or avoidance strategies in the mosquito host. A novel RNA-Protein interaction detection assay was used to detect proteins that directly or indirectly bind to dengue viral genomes in infected mosquito cells. Membrane-associated mosquito proteins Sec61A1 and Loquacious (Loqs) were found to be in complex with the viral RNA. Depletion analysis demonstrated that both Sec61A1 and Loqs have pro-viral functions in the dengue viral infectious cycle. Co-localization and pull-down assays showed that Loqs interacts with viral protein NS3 and both full-length and subgenomic viral RNAs. While Loqs coats the entire positive-stranded viral RNA, it binds selectively to the 3’ end of the negative-strand of the viral genome. In-depth analyses showed that the absence of Loqs did not affect translation or turnover of the viral RNA but modulated viral replication. Loqs also displayed pro-viral functions for several flaviviruses in infected mosquito cells, suggesting a conserved role for Loqs in flavivirus-infected mosquito cells. There is a wealth of information that dictates virus-host interactions in flavivirus-infected mammalian cells, yet there is only sparse information on the mechanisms that modulate viral gene expression in the mosquito host. Using a novel RNA-protein detection assay, the interactions of Sec61A1 and Loqs with the dengue viral genome were found to have pro-viral functions in infected mosquito cells. In particular, Loqs forms complexes with the positive-strand of the viral RNA and the very 3’ end of the negative-strand viral RNA. Further analyses showed that Loqs modulates viral RNA replication of dengue virus and gene amplification of several other flaviviral genomes. These findings argue that Loqs is an essential pro-viral host factor in mosquitos.
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25
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Regla-Nava JA, Wang YT, Fontes-Garfias CR, Liu Y, Syed T, Susantono M, Gonzalez A, Viramontes KM, Verma SK, Kim K, Landeras-Bueno S, Huang CT, Prigozhin DM, Gleeson JG, Terskikh AV, Shi PY, Shresta S. A Zika virus mutation enhances transmission potential and confers escape from protective dengue virus immunity. Cell Rep 2022; 39:110655. [PMID: 35417697 PMCID: PMC9093040 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2021] [Revised: 02/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Zika virus (ZIKV) and dengue virus (DENV) are arthropod-borne pathogenic flaviviruses that co-circulate in many countries. To understand some of the pressures that influence ZIKV evolution, we mimic the natural transmission cycle by repeating serial passaging of ZIKV through cultured mosquito cells and either DENV-naive or DENV-immune mice. Compared with wild-type ZIKV, the strains passaged under both conditions exhibit increased pathogenesis in DENV-immune mice. Application of reverse genetics identifies an isoleucine-to-valine mutation (I39V) in the NS2B proteins of both passaged strains that confers enhanced fitness and escape from pre-existing DENV immunity. Introduction of I39V or I39T, a naturally occurring homologous mutation detected in recent ZIKV isolates, increases the replication of wild-type ZIKV in human neuronal precursor cells and laboratory-raised mosquitoes. Our data indicate that ZIKV strains with enhanced transmissibility and pathogenicity can emerge in DENV-naive or -immune settings, and that NS2B-I39 mutants may represent ZIKV variants of interest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jose Angel Regla-Nava
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Ying-Ting Wang
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Camila R Fontes-Garfias
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA
| | - Yang Liu
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA
| | - Thasneem Syed
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Mercylia Susantono
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Andrew Gonzalez
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Karla M Viramontes
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Shailendra Kumar Verma
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Kenneth Kim
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Sara Landeras-Bueno
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Chun-Teng Huang
- Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Daniil M Prigozhin
- Molecular Biophysics and Integrative Bioimaging Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Joseph G Gleeson
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rady Children's Institute of Genomic Medicine, Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093, USA
| | - Alexey V Terskikh
- Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Pei-Yong Shi
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA.
| | - Sujan Shresta
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
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26
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Trammell CE, Ramirez G, Sanchez-Vargas I, St Clair LA, Ratnayake OC, Luckhart S, Perera R, Goodman AG. Coupled small molecules target RNA interference and JAK/STAT signaling to reduce Zika virus infection in Aedes aegypti. PLoS Pathog 2022; 18:e1010411. [PMID: 35377915 PMCID: PMC9017935 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Revised: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The recent global Zika epidemics have revealed the significant threat that mosquito-borne viruses pose. There are currently no effective vaccines or prophylactics to prevent Zika virus (ZIKV) infection. Limiting exposure to infected mosquitoes is the best way to reduce disease incidence. Recent studies have focused on targeting mosquito reproduction and immune responses to reduce transmission. Previous work has evaluated the effect of insulin signaling on antiviral JAK/STAT and RNAi in vector mosquitoes. Specifically, insulin-fed mosquitoes resulted in reduced virus replication in an RNAi-independent, ERK-mediated JAK/STAT-dependent mechanism. In this work, we demonstrate that targeting insulin signaling through the repurposing of small molecule drugs results in the activation of both RNAi and JAK/STAT antiviral pathways. ZIKV-infected Aedes aegypti were fed blood containing demethylasterriquinone B1 (DMAQ-B1), a potent insulin mimetic, in combination with AKT inhibitor VIII. Activation of this coordinated response additively reduced ZIKV levels in Aedes aegypti. This effect included a quantitatively greater reduction in salivary gland ZIKV levels up to 11 d post-bloodmeal ingestion, relative to single pathway activation. Together, our study indicates the potential for field delivery of these small molecules to substantially reduce virus transmission from mosquito to human. As infections like Zika virus are becoming more burdensome and prevalent, understanding how to control this family of viruses in the insect vector is an important issue in public health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chasity E. Trammell
- School of Molecular Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
| | - Gabriela Ramirez
- Center for Vector-borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Irma Sanchez-Vargas
- Center for Vector-borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Laura A. St Clair
- Center for Vector-borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Oshani C. Ratnayake
- Center for Vector-borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Shirley Luckhart
- Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology, and Nematology, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, United States of America
| | - Rushika Perera
- Center for Vector-borne Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
- * E-mail: (RP); (AGG)
| | - Alan G. Goodman
- School of Molecular Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
- Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States of America
- * E-mail: (RP); (AGG)
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27
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Furtado ND, Raphael LDM, Ribeiro IP, de Mello IS, Fernandes DR, Gómez MM, dos Santos AAC, Nogueira MDS, de Castro MG, de Abreu FVS, Martins LC, Vasconcelos PFDC, Lourenço-de-Oliveira R, Bonaldo MC. Biological Characterization of Yellow Fever Viruses Isolated From Non-human Primates in Brazil With Distinct Genomic Landscapes. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:757084. [PMID: 35237244 PMCID: PMC8882863 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.757084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 01/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Since the beginning of the XXI Century, the yellow fever virus (YFV) has been cyclically spreading from the Amazon basin to Brazil’s South and Southeast regions, culminating in an unprecedented outbreak that started in 2016. In this work, we studied four YFV isolated from non-human primates obtained during outbreaks in the states of Rio Grande do Sul in 2008 (PR4408), Goiás (GO05), and Espírito Santo (ES-504) in 2017, and Rio de Janeiro (RJ 155) in 2019. These isolates have genomic differences mainly distributed in non-structural proteins. We compared the isolates’ rates of infection in mammal and mosquito cells and neurovirulence in adult mice. RJ 155 and PR4408 YFV isolates exhibited higher infectivity in mammalian cells and neurovirulence in mice. In mosquito Aag2 cells, GO05 and PR4408 displayed the lowest proliferation rates. These results suggest that RJ 155 and PR4408 YFV isolates carry some genomic markers that increase infectivity in mammal hosts. From this characterization, it is possible to contribute to discovering new molecular markers for the virulence of YFV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathália Dias Furtado
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Flavivírus, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Lidiane de Menezes Raphael
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Flavivírus, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Ieda Pereira Ribeiro
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Flavivírus, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Iasmim Silva de Mello
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Flavivírus, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Déberli Ruiz Fernandes
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Flavivírus, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | | | | | - Mônica da Silva Nogueira
- Centro de Experimentação Animal, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Márcia Gonçalves de Castro
- Laboratório de Mosquitos Transmissores de Hematozoários, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Filipe Vieira Santos de Abreu
- Laboratório de Mosquitos Transmissores de Hematozoários, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Lívia Carício Martins
- Seção de Arbovirologia e Febres Hemorrágicas, Instituto Evandro Chagas/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Pará, Brazil
| | | | - Ricardo Lourenço-de-Oliveira
- Laboratório de Mosquitos Transmissores de Hematozoários, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Myrna Cristina Bonaldo
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Flavivírus, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- *Correspondence: Myrna Cristina Bonaldo,
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Palatini U, Contreras CA, Gasmi L, Bonizzoni M. Endogenous viral elements in mosquito genomes: current knowledge and outstanding questions. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2022; 49:22-30. [PMID: 34740858 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2021.10.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Revised: 10/26/2021] [Accepted: 10/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Integrations from non-retroviral RNA viruses (nrEVEs) have been identified across several taxa, including mosquitoes. Amongst all Culicinae species, the viral vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus stand out for their high number of nrEVEs. In addition, Aedes nrEVEs are enriched in piRNA clusters and generate piRNAs that can silence incoming viral genomes. As such, nrEVEs represent a new form of inherited antiviral immunity. To propel this discovery into novel transmission-blocking vector control strategies, a deeper understanding of nrEVE biology and evolution is essential because differences in the landscape of nrEVEs have been identified in wild-caught mosquitoes, the piRNA profile of nrEVEs is not homogeneous and nrEVEs outside piRNA clusters exist and are expressed at the mRNA level. Here we summarise current knowledge on nrEVEs in mosquitoes and we point out the many unanswered questions and potentials of these genomic elements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Umberto Palatini
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Claudia A Contreras
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Laila Gasmi
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Mariangela Bonizzoni
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, 27100 Pavia, Italy..
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Gestuveo RJ, Parry R, Dickson LB, Lequime S, Sreenu VB, Arnold MJ, Khromykh AA, Schnettler E, Lambrechts L, Varjak M, Kohl A. Mutational analysis of Aedes aegypti Dicer 2 provides insights into the biogenesis of antiviral exogenous small interfering RNAs. PLoS Pathog 2022; 18:e1010202. [PMID: 34990484 PMCID: PMC8769306 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2021] [Revised: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The exogenous small interfering RNA (exo-siRNA) pathway is a key antiviral mechanism in the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a widely distributed vector of human-pathogenic arboviruses. This pathway is induced by virus-derived double-stranded RNAs (dsRNA) that are cleaved by the ribonuclease Dicer 2 (Dcr2) into predominantly 21 nucleotide (nt) virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs). These vsiRNAs are used by the effector protein Argonaute 2 within the RNA-induced silencing complex to cleave target viral RNA. Dcr2 contains several domains crucial for its activities, including helicase and RNase III domains. In Drosophila melanogaster Dcr2, the helicase domain has been associated with binding to dsRNA with blunt-ended termini and a processive siRNA production mechanism, while the platform-PAZ domains bind dsRNA with 3’ overhangs and subsequent distributive siRNA production. Here we analyzed the contributions of the helicase and RNase III domains in Ae. aegypti Dcr2 to antiviral activity and to the exo-siRNA pathway. Conserved amino acids in the helicase and RNase III domains were identified to investigate Dcr2 antiviral activity in an Ae. aegypti-derived Dcr2 knockout cell line by reporter assays and infection with mosquito-borne Semliki Forest virus (Togaviridae, Alphavirus). Functionally relevant amino acids were found to be conserved in haplotype Dcr2 sequences from field-derived Ae. aegypti across different continents. The helicase and RNase III domains were critical for silencing activity and 21 nt vsiRNA production, with RNase III domain activity alone determined to be insufficient for antiviral activity. Analysis of 21 nt vsiRNA sequences (produced by functional Dcr2) to assess the distribution and phasing along the viral genome revealed diverse yet highly consistent vsiRNA pools, with predominantly short or long sequence overlaps including 19 nt overlaps (the latter representing most likely true Dcr2 cleavage products). Combined with the importance of the Dcr2 helicase domain, this suggests that the majority of 21 nt vsiRNAs originate by processive cleavage. This study sheds new light on Ae. aegypti Dcr2 functions and properties in this important arbovirus vector species. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit human-pathogenic viruses rely on the exogenous small interfering RNA (exo-siRNA) pathway as part of antiviral responses. This pathway is triggered by virus-derived double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) produced during viral replication that is then cleaved by Dicer 2 (Dcr2) into virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs). These vsiRNAs target viral RNA, leading to suppression of viral replication. The importance of Dcr2 in this pathway has been intensely studied in the Drosophila melanogaster model but is largely lacking in mosquitoes. Here, we have identified conserved and functionally relevant amino acids in the helicase and RNase III domains of Ae. aegypti Dcr2 that are important in its silencing activity and antiviral responses against Semliki Forest virus (SFV). Small RNA sequencing of SFV-infected mosquito cells with functional or mutated Dcr2 gave new insights into the nature and origin of vsiRNAs. The findings of this study, together with the different molecular tools we have previously developed to investigate the exo-siRNA pathway of mosquito cells, have started to uncover important properties of Dcr2 that could be valuable in understanding mosquito-arbovirus interactions and potentially in developing or assisting vector control strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rommel J. Gestuveo
- MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines
- * E-mail: (R.J.G.); (M.V.); (A.K.)
| | - Rhys Parry
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia
| | - Laura B. Dickson
- Insect-Virus Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR2000, CNRS, Paris, France
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America
- Institute for Human Infection and Immunity, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America
| | - Sebastian Lequime
- Insect-Virus Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR2000, CNRS, Paris, France
- Cluster of Microbial Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | | | - Matthew J. Arnold
- MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Alexander A. Khromykh
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia
- Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, Global Virus Network Centre of Excellence, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Esther Schnettler
- Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany
- German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Hamburg-Luebeck-Borstel-Riems, Hamburg, Germany
- Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, University Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Louis Lambrechts
- Insect-Virus Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR2000, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Margus Varjak
- MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
- * E-mail: (R.J.G.); (M.V.); (A.K.)
| | - Alain Kohl
- MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (R.J.G.); (M.V.); (A.K.)
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Dayama G, Bulekova K, Lau NC. Extending and Running the Mosquito Small RNA Genomics Resource Pipeline. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2509:341-352. [PMID: 35796973 PMCID: PMC10100135 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2380-0_20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The Mosquito Small RNA Genomics (MSRG) resource is a repository of analyses on the small RNA transcriptomes of mosquito cell cultures and somatic and gonadal tissues. This resource allows for comparing the regulation dynamics of small RNAs generated from transposons and viruses across mosquito species. This chapter covers the procedures to set up the MSRG resource pipeline as a new installation by detailing the necessary collection of genome reference and annotation files and lists of microRNAs (miRNAs) hairpin sequences, transposon repeats consensus sequences, and virus genome sequences. Proper execution of the MSRG resource pipeline yields outputs amenable to biologists to further analyze with desktop and spreadsheet software to gain insights into the balance between arthropod endogenous small RNA populations and the proportions of virus-derived small RNAs that include Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) and endogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs).
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Affiliation(s)
- Gargi Dayama
- Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, Boston University Bioinformatics Program, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Katia Bulekova
- Boston University Research Computing Services, Information Services and Technology, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Nelson C Lau
- Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, Boston University Bioinformatics Program, Boston, MA, USA.
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Enoxacin shows a broad-spectrum antiviral activity against diverse viruses by enhancing antiviral RNAi in insects. J Virol 2021; 96:e0177821. [PMID: 34908449 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01778-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
RNA interference (RNAi) functions as the major host antiviral defense in insects, while less is understood about how to utilize antiviral RNAi in controlling viral infection in insects. Enoxacin belongs to the family of synthetic antibacterial compounds based on a fluoroquinolone skeleton that has been previously found to enhance RNAi in mammalian cells. In this study, we showed that enoxacin efficiently inhibited viral replication of Drosophila C virus (DCV) and Cricket paralysis virus (CrPV) in cultured Drosophila cells. Enoxacin promoted the loading of Dicer-2-processed virus-derived siRNA into the RNA-induced silencing complex, thereby enhancing antiviral RNAi response in infected cells. Moreover, enoxacin treatment elicited an RNAi-dependent in vivo protective efficacy against DCV or CrPV challenge in adult fruit flies. In addition, enoxacin also inhibited replication of flaviviruses, including Dengue virus and Zika virus, in Aedes mosquito cells in an RNAi-dependent manner. Together, our findings demonstrated that enoxacin can enhance RNAi in insects, and enhancing RNAi by enoxacin is an effective antiviral strategy against diverse viruses in insects, which may be exploited as a broad-spectrum antiviral agent to control vector transmission of arboviruses or viral diseases in insect farming. Importance RNAi has been widely recognized as one of the most broadly acting and robust antiviral mechanism in insects. However, the application of antiviral RNAi in controlling viral infections in insects is less understood. Enoxacin is a fluoroquinolone compound that has been previously found to enhance RNAi in mammalian cells, while its RNAi-enhancing activity has not been assessed in insects. Herein, we showed that enoxacin treatment inhibited viral replication of DCV and CrPV in Drosophila cells and in adult fruit flies. Enoxacin promoted the loading of Dicer-generated virus-derived siRNA into Ago2-incorporated RNA-induced silencing complex, and in turn strengthened the antiviral RNAi response in the infected cells. Moreover, enoxacin also displayed effective RNAi-dependent antiviral effects against flaviviruses, such as Dengue virus and Zika virus, in mosquito cells. This study is the first to demonstrate that enhancing RNAi by enoxacin elicits potent antiviral efficacies against diverse viruses in insects.
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de Oliveira AS, Vasconcellos AF, Rodrigues BMP, da Silva LA, Resende RO, Ribeiro BM. Chikungunya virus produced by a persistently infected mosquito cell line comprises a shorter genome and is non-infectious to mammalian cells. J Gen Virol 2021; 102. [PMID: 34878970 DOI: 10.1099/jgv.0.001700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Although RNA viruses have high mutation rates, host cells and organisms work as selective environments, maintaining the viability of virus populations by eliminating deleterious genotypes. In serial passages of RNA viruses in a single cell line, most of these selective bottlenecks are absent, with no virus circulation and replication in different tissues or host alternation. In this work, Aedes aegypti Aag-2 cells were accidentally infected with Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and Mayaro virus (MAYV). After numerous passages to achieve infection persistency, the infectivity of these viruses was evaluated in Ae. albopictus C6/36 cells, African green monkey Vero cells and primary-cultured human fibroblasts. While these CHIKV and MAYV isolates were still infectious to mosquito cells, they lost their ability to infect mammalian cells. After genome sequencing, it was observed that CHIKV accumulated many nonsynonymous mutations and a significant deletion in the coding sequence of the hypervariable domain in the nsP3 gene. Since MAYV showed very low titres, it was not sequenced successfully. Persistently infected Aag-2 cells also accumulated high loads of short and recombinant CHIKV RNAs, which seemed to have been originated from virus-derived DNAs. In conclusion, the genome of this CHIKV isolate could guide mutagenesis strategies for the production of attenuated or non-infectious (to mammals) CHIKV vaccine candidates. Our results also reinforce that a paradox is expected during passages of cells persistently infected by RNA viruses: more loosening for the development of more diverse virus genotypes and more pressure for virus specialization to this constant cellular environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Athos S de Oliveira
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Cell Biology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
| | | | - Bruno M P Rodrigues
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Cell Biology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
| | - Leonardo A da Silva
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Cell Biology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
| | - Renato O Resende
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Cell Biology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
| | - Bergmann M Ribeiro
- Laboratory of Virology, Department of Cell Biology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
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Qiao J, Liu Q. Interplay between autophagy and Sindbis virus in cells derived from key arbovirus vectors, Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Cell Signal 2021; 90:110204. [PMID: 34826589 DOI: 10.1016/j.cellsig.2021.110204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Revised: 11/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti are two species of Aedes mosquitoes which transmit multiple arboviruses causing serious diseases in human. Intriguingly, infection of arbovirus in both Aedes mosquitoes does not cause dramatic pathology, indicating that both mosquitoes have evolved mechanisms to tolerate persistent infection and restrict viral replication to nonpathogenic levels. Therefore, understanding how these mosquitoes interact with viruses would help to find targets for controlling the related mosquito-borne diseases. Autophagy is a conserved cellular recycling process functioning in maintenance of cellular homeostasis and recirculation of cytoplasmic materials under stressful conditions. Autophagy also acts as a cellular defense mechanism against viral infection. It is known that autophagy plays important roles in the replication of several Aedes mosquito-borne viruses in mammalian systems. However, little information is available regarding the role of autophagy in replication of those viruses in their primary vector, Aedes mosquitoes. This study found that interaction between autophagy and replication of Sindbis virus (SINV) occurred in Aedes albopictus C6/36 cells and Ae. aegypti Aag2 cells. Moreover, it discovered that the patterns of interaction between autophagy and SINV replication are different in C6/36 cells and Aag2 cells. It was shown that replication of SINV induced complete autophagy in C6/36 cells but suppressed autophagy in Aag2 cells. Moreover, induction of autophagy by rapamycin treatment restricted SINV replication in C6/36 cells but promoted SINV replication in Aag2 cells. Consistent with this, suppression of autophagy by down regulation of Atg8 promoted SINV replication in C6/36 cells but restricted SINV replication in Aag2 cells. It was also found that, in both C6/36 and Aag2 cells, interaction between autophagy and SINV replication occurred after viral entry and prior to viral assembly. Collectively, this work demonstrated that SINV replication manipulated autophagy in Aedes mosquito cells and provided strong evidence of the role autophagy played in viral replication in Aedes mosquitoes. The findings have laid a foundation to elucidate the correlation between autophagy and arbovirus replication in Aedes mosquitoes and could help to understand the difference in viral transmission capacity of the two Aedes mosquitoes, Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jialu Qiao
- State Key Laboratory of Virology and Modern Virology Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, PR China
| | - Qingzhen Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Virology and Modern Virology Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, PR China.
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Intra- and Inter-cellular Modeling of Dynamic Interaction between Zika Virus and Its Naturally Occurring Defective Viral Genomes. J Virol 2021; 95:e0097721. [PMID: 34468175 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00977-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Here, we examine in silico the infection dynamics and interactions of two Zika virus (ZIKV) genomes: one is the full-length ZIKV genome (wild type [WT]), and the other is one of the naturally occurring defective viral genomes (DVGs), which can replicate in the presence of the WT genome, appears under high-MOI (multiplicity of infection) passaging conditions, and carries a deletion encompassing part of the structural and NS1 protein-coding region. Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) were used to simulate the infection of cells by virus particles and the intracellular replication of the WT and DVG genomes that produce these particles. For each virus passage in Vero and C6/36 cell cultures, the rates of the simulated processes were fitted to two types of observations: virus titer data and the assembled haplotypes of the replicate passage samples. We studied the consistency of the model with the experimental data across all passages of infection in each cell type separately as well as the sensitivity of the model's parameters. We also determined which simulated processes of virus evolution are the most important for the adaptation of the WT and DVG interplay in these two disparate cell culture environments. Our results demonstrate that in the majority of passages, the rates of DVG production are higher inC6/36 cells than in Vero cells, which might result in tolerance and therefore drive the persistence of the mosquito vector in the context of ZIKV infection. Additionally, the model simulations showed a slower accumulation of infected cells under higher activation of the DVG-associated processes, which indicates a potential role of DVGs in virus attenuation. IMPORTANCE One of the ideas for lessening Zika pathogenicity is the addition of its natural or engineered defective virus genomes (DVGs) (have no pathogenicity) to the infection pool: a DVG is redirecting the wild-type (WT)-associated virus development resources toward its own maturation. The mathematical model presented here, attuned to the data from interplays between WT Zika viruses and their natural DVGs in mammalian and mosquito cells, provides evidence that the loss of uninfected cells is attenuated by the DVG development processes. This model enabled us to estimate the rates of virus development processes in the WT/DVG interplay, determine the key processes, and show that the key processes are faster in mosquito cells than in mammalian ones. In general, the presented model and its detailed study suggest in what important virus development processes the therapeutically efficient DVG might compete with the WT; this may help in assembling engineered DVGs for ZIKV and other flaviviruses.
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Constant LEC, Rajsfus BF, Carneiro PH, Sisnande T, Mohana-Borges R, Allonso D. Overview on Chikungunya Virus Infection: From Epidemiology to State-of-the-Art Experimental Models. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:744164. [PMID: 34675908 PMCID: PMC8524093 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.744164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is currently one of the most relevant arboviruses to public health. It is a member of the Togaviridae family and alphavirus genus and causes an arthritogenic disease known as chikungunya fever (CHIKF). It is characterized by a multifaceted disease, which is distinguished from other arbovirus infections by the intense and debilitating arthralgia that can last for months or years in some individuals. Despite the great social and economic burden caused by CHIKV infection, there is no vaccine or specific antiviral drugs currently available. Recent outbreaks have shown a change in the severity profile of the disease in which atypical and severe manifestation lead to hundreds of deaths, reinforcing the necessity to understand the replication and pathogenesis processes. CHIKF is a complex disease resultant from the infection of a plethora of cell types. Although there are several in vivo models for studying CHIKV infection, none of them reproduces integrally the disease signature observed in humans, which is a challenge for vaccine and drug development. Therefore, understanding the potentials and limitations of the state-of-the-art experimental models is imperative to advance in the field. In this context, the present review outlines the present knowledge on CHIKV epidemiology, replication, pathogenesis, and immunity and also brings a critical perspective on the current in vitro and in vivo state-of-the-art experimental models of CHIKF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Larissa E. C. Constant
- Departamento de Biotecnologia Farmacêutica, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia e Bioengenharia Estrutural, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Bia F. Rajsfus
- Departamento de Biotecnologia Farmacêutica, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia e Bioengenharia Estrutural, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Pedro H. Carneiro
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia e Bioengenharia Estrutural, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Tháyna Sisnande
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia e Bioengenharia Estrutural, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Ronaldo Mohana-Borges
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia e Bioengenharia Estrutural, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Diego Allonso
- Departamento de Biotecnologia Farmacêutica, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Ayers JB, Xie X, Coatsworth H, Stephenson CJ, Waits CM, Shi PY, Dinglasan RR. Infection Kinetics and Transmissibility of a Reanimated Dengue Virus Serotype 4 Identified Originally in Wild Aedes aegypti From Florida. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:734903. [PMID: 34630357 PMCID: PMC8500192 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.734903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2021] [Accepted: 08/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Dengue virus is the most prevalent mosquito-borne virus, causing approximately 390 million infections and 25,000 deaths per year. Aedes aegypti, the primary mosquito vector of dengue virus, is well-established throughout the state of Florida, United States. Autochthonous transmission of dengue virus to humans in Florida has been increasing since 2009, alongside consistent importation of dengue cases. However, most cases of first infection with dengue are asymptomatic and the virus can be maintained in mosquito populations, complicating surveillance and leading to an underestimation of disease risk. Metagenomic sequencing of A. aegypti mosquitoes in Manatee County, Florida revealed the presence of dengue virus serotype 4 (DENV-4) genomes in mosquitoes from multiple trapping sites over 2years, in the absence of a human DENV-4 index case, and even though a locally acquired case of DENV-4 has never been reported in Florida. This finding suggested that: (i) DENV-4 may circulate among humans undetected; (ii) the virus was being maintained in the mosquito population, or (iii) the detected complete genome sequence may not represent a viable virus. This study demonstrates that an infectious clone generated from the Manatee County DENV-4 (DENV-4M) sequence is capable of infecting mammalian and insect tissue culture systems, as well as adult female A. aegypti mosquitoes when fed in a blood meal. However, the virus is subject to a dose dependent infection barrier in mosquitoes, and has a kinetic delay compared to a phylogenetically related wild-type (WT) control virus from a symptomatic child, DENV-4H (strain Homo sapiens/Haiti-0075/2015, GenBank accession MK514144.1). DENV-4M disseminates from the midgut to the ovary and saliva at 14days post-infection. Viral RNA was also detectable in the adult female offspring of DENV-4M infected mosquitoes. These results demonstrate that the virus is capable of infecting vector mosquitoes, is transmissible by bite, and is vertically transmitted, indicating a mechanism for maintenance in the environment without human-mosquito transmission. These findings suggest undetected human-mosquito transmission and/or long-term maintenance of the virus in the mosquito population is occurring in Florida, and underscore the importance of proactive surveillance for viruses in mosquitoes. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACTIn order to better assess the public health risk posed by a detection of DENV-4 RNA in Manatee County, FL Aedes aegypti, we produced an infectious clone using the sequence from the wild-caught mosquitoes and characterized it via laboratory infections of mosquitoes and mosquito tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasmine B. Ayers
- Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
| | - Xuping Xie
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States
| | - Heather Coatsworth
- Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
| | - Caroline J. Stephenson
- Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
- Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
| | - Christy M. Waits
- Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
- Navy Entomology Center of Excellence, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, FL, United States
| | - Pei-Yong Shi
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States
| | - Rhoel R. Dinglasan
- Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States
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Mammals Preferred: Reassortment of Batai and Bunyamwera orthobunyavirus Occurs in Mammalian but Not Insect Cells. Viruses 2021; 13:v13091702. [PMID: 34578285 PMCID: PMC8473249 DOI: 10.3390/v13091702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2021] [Revised: 08/17/2021] [Accepted: 08/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Reassortment is a viral genome-segment recomposition known for many viruses, including the orthobunyaviruses. The co-infection of a host cell with two viruses of the same serogroup, such as the Bunyamwera orthobunyavirus and the Batai orthobunyavirus, can give rise to novel viruses. One example is the Ngari virus, which has caused major outbreaks of human infections in Central Africa. This study aimed to investigate the potential for reassortment of Bunyamwera orthobunyavirus and the Batai orthobunyavirus during co-infection studies and the replication properties of the reassortants in different mammalian and insect cell lines. In the co-infection studies, a Ngari-like virus reassortant and a novel reassortant virus, the Batunya virus, arose in BHK-21 cells (Mesocricetus auratus). In contrast, no reassortment was observed in the examined insect cells from Aedes aegypti (Aag2) and Aedes albopictus (U4.4 and C6/36). The growth kinetic experiments show that both reassortants are replicated to higher titers in some mammalian cell lines than the parental viruses but show impaired growth in insect cell lines.
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Parry R, James ME, Asgari S. Uncovering the Worldwide Diversity and Evolution of the Virome of the Mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Microorganisms 2021; 9:microorganisms9081653. [PMID: 34442732 PMCID: PMC8398489 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9081653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2021] [Revised: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, and Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, are the most significant vectors of dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya viruses globally. Studies examining host factors that control arbovirus transmission demonstrate that insect-specific viruses (ISVs) can modulate mosquitoes’ susceptibility to arbovirus infection in both in vivo and in vitro co-infection models. While research is ongoing to implicate individual ISVs as proviral or antiviral factors, we have a limited understanding of the composition and diversity of the Aedes virome. To address this gap, we used a meta-analysis approach to uncover virome diversity by analysing ~3000 available RNA sequencing libraries representing a worldwide geographic range for both mosquitoes. We identified ten novel viruses and previously characterised viruses, including mononegaviruses, orthomyxoviruses, negeviruses, and a novel bi-segmented negev-like group. Phylogenetic analysis suggests close relatedness to mosquito viruses implying likely insect host range except for one arbovirus, the multi-segmented Jingmen tick virus (Flaviviridae) in an Italian colony of Ae. albopictus. Individual mosquito transcriptomes revealed remarkable inter-host variation of ISVs within individuals from the same colony and heterogeneity between different laboratory strains. Additionally, we identified striking virus diversity in Wolbachia infected Aedes cell lines. This study expands our understanding of the virome of these important vectors. It provides a resource for further assessing the ecology, evolution, and interaction of ISVs with their mosquito hosts and the arboviruses they transmit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rhys Parry
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
- Correspondence:
| | - Maddie E James
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; (M.E.J.); (S.A.)
| | - Sassan Asgari
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; (M.E.J.); (S.A.)
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Interactions of the Insect-Specific Palm Creek Virus with Zika and Chikungunya Viruses in Aedes Mosquitoes. Microorganisms 2021; 9:microorganisms9081652. [PMID: 34442731 PMCID: PMC8402152 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9081652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Palm Creek virus (PCV) is an insect-specific flavivirus that can interfere with the replication of mosquito-borne flaviviruses in Culex mosquitoes, thereby potentially reducing disease transmission. We examined whether PCV could interfere with arbovirus replication in Aedes (Ae.) aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes, major vectors for many prominent mosquito-borne viral diseases. We infected laboratory colonies of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus with PCV to evaluate infection dynamics. PCV infection was found to persist to at least 21 days post-infection and could be detected in the midguts and ovaries. We then assayed for PCV-arbovirus interference by orally challenging PCV-infected mosquitoes with Zika and chikungunya viruses. For both arboviruses, PCV infection had no effect on infection and transmission rates, indicating limited potential as a method of intervention for Aedes-transmitted arboviruses. We also explored the hypothesis that PCV-arbovirus interference is mediated by the small interfering RNA pathway in silico. Our findings indicate that RNA interference is unlikely to underlie the mechanism of arbovirus inhibition and emphasise the need for empirical examination of individual pairs of insect-specific viruses and arboviruses to fully understand their impact on arbovirus transmission.
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Facile method for delivering chikungunya viral replicons into mosquitoes and mammalian cells. Sci Rep 2021; 11:12321. [PMID: 34112897 PMCID: PMC8192953 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-91830-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 06/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Reverse genetics is an important tool in the elucidation of viral replication and the development of countermeasures; however, these methods are impeded by laborious and inefficient replicon delivery methods. This paper demonstrates the use of a baculovirus to facilitate the efficient delivery of autonomous CHIKV replicons into mosquito and mammalian cells in vitro as well as adult mosquitoes in vivo. The efficacy of this approach was verified via co-localization among an eGFP reporter, nsP1, and dsRNA as well as through the inhibition of an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) null mutation (DDAA) in nsP4, or the treatment of a known antiviral compound (6-azauridine). We also investigated the correlation between CHIKV replicon-launched eGFP expression and the effectiveness of CHIKV replicon variants in inducing IFN-β expression in human cell lines. This delivery method based on a single vector is applicable to mosquito and mammalian cells in seeking to decipher the mechanisms underlying CHIKV replication, elucidate virus-host interactions, and develop antivirals. This study presents an effective alternative to overcome many of the technological issues related to the study and utilization of autonomous arbovirus replicons.
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An Aedes aegypti-Derived Ago2 Knockout Cell Line to Investigate Arbovirus Infections. Viruses 2021; 13:v13061066. [PMID: 34205194 PMCID: PMC8227176 DOI: 10.3390/v13061066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Revised: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Mosquitoes are known as important vectors of many arthropod-borne (arbo)viruses causing disease in humans. These include dengue (DENV) and Zika (ZIKV) viruses. The exogenous small interfering (si)RNA (exo-siRNA) pathway is believed to be the main antiviral defense in arthropods, including mosquitoes. During infection, double-stranded RNAs that form during viral replication and infection are cleaved by the enzyme Dicer 2 (Dcr2) into virus-specific 21 nt vsiRNAs, which are subsequently loaded into Argonaute 2 (Ago2). Ago2 then targets and subsequently cleaves complementary RNA sequences, resulting in degradation of the target viral RNA. Although various studies using silencing approaches have supported the antiviral activity of the exo-siRNA pathway in mosquitoes, and despite strong similarities between the siRNA pathway in the Drosophila melanogaster model and mosquitoes, important questions remain unanswered. The antiviral activity of Ago2 against different arboviruses has been previously demonstrated. However, silencing of Ago2 had no effect on ZIKV replication, whereas Dcr2 knockout enhanced its replication. These findings raise the question as to the role of Ago2 and Dcr2 in the control of arboviruses from different viral families in mosquitoes. Using a newly established Ago2 knockout cell line, alongside the previously reported Dcr2 knockout cell line, we investigated the impact these proteins have on the modulation of different arboviral infections. Infection of Ago2 knockout cell line with alpha- and bunyaviruses resulted in an increase of viral replication, but not in the case of ZIKV. Analysis of small RNA sequencing data in the Ago2 knockout cells revealed a lack of methylated siRNAs from different sources, such as acute and persistently infecting viruses-, TE- and transcriptome-derived RNAs. The results confirmed the importance of the exo-siRNA pathway in the defense against arboviruses, but highlights variability in its response to different viruses and the impact the siRNA pathway proteins have in controlling viral replication. Moreover, this established Ago2 knockout cell line can be used for functional Ago2 studies, as well as research on the interplay between the RNAi pathways.
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Fros JJ, Visser I, Tang B, Yan K, Nakayama E, Visser TM, Koenraadt CJM, van Oers MM, Pijlman GP, Suhrbier A, Simmonds P. The dinucleotide composition of the Zika virus genome is shaped by conflicting evolutionary pressures in mammalian hosts and mosquito vectors. PLoS Biol 2021; 19:e3001201. [PMID: 33872300 PMCID: PMC8084339 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2020] [Revised: 04/29/2021] [Accepted: 03/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Most vertebrate RNA viruses show pervasive suppression of CpG and UpA dinucleotides, closely resembling the dinucleotide composition of host cell transcriptomes. In contrast, CpG suppression is absent in both invertebrate mRNA and RNA viruses that exclusively infect arthropods. Arthropod-borne (arbo) viruses are transmitted between vertebrate hosts by invertebrate vectors and thus encounter potentially conflicting evolutionary pressures in the different cytoplasmic environments. Using a newly developed Zika virus (ZIKV) model, we have investigated how demands for CpG suppression in vertebrate cells can be reconciled with potentially quite different compositional requirements in invertebrates and how this affects ZIKV replication and transmission. Mutant viruses with synonymously elevated CpG or UpA dinucleotide frequencies showed attenuated replication in vertebrate cell lines, which was rescued by knockout of the zinc-finger antiviral protein (ZAP). Conversely, in mosquito cells, ZIKV mutants with elevated CpG dinucleotide frequencies showed substantially enhanced replication compared to wild type. Host-driven effects on virus replication attenuation and enhancement were even more apparent in mouse and mosquito models. Infections with CpG- or UpA-high ZIKV mutants in mice did not cause typical ZIKV-induced tissue damage and completely protected mice during subsequent challenge with wild-type virus, which demonstrates their potential as live-attenuated vaccines. In contrast, the CpG-high mutants displayed enhanced replication in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and a larger proportion of mosquitoes carried infectious virus in their saliva. These findings show that mosquito cells are also capable of discriminating RNA based on dinucleotide composition. However, the evolutionary pressure on the CpG dinucleotides of viral genomes in arthropod vectors directly opposes the pressure present in vertebrate host cells, which provides evidence that an adaptive compromise is required for arbovirus transmission. This suggests that the genome composition of arbo flaviviruses is crucial to maintain the balance between high-level replication in the vertebrate host and persistent replication in the mosquito vector. The genome of the flavivirus Zika virus is stuck in a tug-of-war between two directly opposing evolutionary pressures that are present in the cells of mammalian host organisms and mosquito vectors; this results in an adaptive compromise, as manifested in the virus’s genome dinucleotide composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jelke J. Fros
- Nuffield Department of Medicine, Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
- * E-mail:
| | - Imke Visser
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Bing Tang
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Kexin Yan
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Eri Nakayama
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Department of Virology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Tessa M. Visser
- Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | | | - Monique M. van Oers
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Gorben P. Pijlman
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Andreas Suhrbier
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Peter Simmonds
- Nuffield Department of Medicine, Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Defective viral genomes as therapeutic interfering particles against flavivirus infection in mammalian and mosquito hosts. Nat Commun 2021; 12:2290. [PMID: 33863888 PMCID: PMC8052367 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22341-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Arthropod-borne viruses pose a major threat to global public health. Thus, innovative strategies for their control and prevention are urgently needed. Here, we exploit the natural capacity of viruses to generate defective viral genomes (DVGs) to their detriment. While DVGs have been described for most viruses, identifying which, if any, can be used as therapeutic agents remains a challenge. We present a combined experimental evolution and computational approach to triage DVG sequence space and pinpoint the fittest deletions, using Zika virus as an arbovirus model. This approach identifies fit DVGs that optimally interfere with wild-type virus infection. We show that the most fit DVGs conserve the open reading frame to maintain the translation of the remaining non-structural proteins, a characteristic that is fundamental across the flavivirus genus. Finally, we demonstrate that the high fitness DVG is antiviral in vivo both in the mammalian host and the mosquito vector, reducing transmission in the latter by up to 90%. Our approach establishes the method to interrogate the DVG fitness landscape, and enables the systematic identification of DVGs that show promise as human therapeutics and vector control strategies to mitigate arbovirus transmission and disease.
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Ma Q, Srivastav SP, Gamez S, Dayama G, Feitosa-Suntheimer F, Patterson EI, Johnson RM, Matson EM, Gold AS, Brackney DE, Connor JH, Colpitts TM, Hughes GL, Rasgon JL, Nolan T, Akbari OS, Lau NC. A mosquito small RNA genomics resource reveals dynamic evolution and host responses to viruses and transposons. Genome Res 2021; 31:512-528. [PMID: 33419731 PMCID: PMC7919454 DOI: 10.1101/gr.265157.120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2020] [Accepted: 01/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Although mosquitoes are major transmission vectors for pathogenic arboviruses, viral infection has little impact on mosquito health. This immunity is caused in part by mosquito RNA interference (RNAi) pathways that generate antiviral small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). RNAi also maintains genome integrity by potently repressing mosquito transposon activity in the germline and soma. However, viral and transposon small RNA regulatory pathways have not been systematically examined together in mosquitoes. Therefore, we developed an integrated mosquito small RNA genomics (MSRG) resource that analyzes the transposon and virus small RNA profiles in mosquito cell cultures and somatic and gonadal tissues across four medically important mosquito species. Our resource captures both somatic and gonadal small RNA expression profiles within mosquito cell cultures, and we report the evolutionary dynamics of a novel Mosquito-Conserved piRNA Cluster Locus (MCpiRCL) made up of satellite DNA repeats. In the larger culicine mosquito genomes we detected highly regular periodicity in piRNA biogenesis patterns coinciding with the expansion of Piwi pathway genes. Finally, our resource enables detection of cross talk between piRNA and siRNA populations in mosquito cells during a response to virus infection. The MSRG resource will aid efforts to dissect and combat the capacity of mosquitoes to tolerate and spread arboviruses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qicheng Ma
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
| | - Satyam P Srivastav
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
| | - Stephanie Gamez
- Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
| | - Gargi Dayama
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
| | - Fabiana Feitosa-Suntheimer
- Department of Microbiology and the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
| | - Edward I Patterson
- Departments of Vector Biology and Tropical Disease Biology, Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA, United Kingdom
| | - Rebecca M Johnson
- Department of Entomology, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, and the Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
| | - Erik M Matson
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
| | - Alexander S Gold
- Department of Microbiology and the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
| | - Douglas E Brackney
- Department of Environmental Sciences, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
| | - John H Connor
- Department of Microbiology and the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
| | - Tonya M Colpitts
- Department of Microbiology and the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
| | - Grant L Hughes
- Departments of Vector Biology and Tropical Disease Biology, Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA, United Kingdom
| | - Jason L Rasgon
- Department of Entomology, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, and the Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
| | - Tony Nolan
- Departments of Vector Biology and Tropical Disease Biology, Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA, United Kingdom
| | - Omar S Akbari
- Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
| | - Nelson C Lau
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
- Boston University Genome Science Institute and the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
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Li M, Xing D, Su D, Wang D, Gao H, Lan C, Gu Z, Zhao T, Li C. Transcriptome Analysis of Responses to Dengue Virus 2 Infection in Aedes albopictus (Skuse) C6/36 Cells. Viruses 2021; 13:v13020343. [PMID: 33671824 PMCID: PMC7926344 DOI: 10.3390/v13020343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Revised: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Dengue virus (DENV), a member of the Flavivirus genus of the Flaviviridae family, can cause dengue fever (DF) and more serious diseases and thus imposes a heavy burden worldwide. As the main vector of DENV, mosquitoes are a serious hazard. After infection, they induce a complex host–pathogen interaction mechanism. Our goal is to further study the interaction mechanism of viruses in homologous, sensitive, and repeatable C6/36 cell vectors. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) technology was applied to the host transcript profiles of C6/36 cells infected with DENV2. Then, bioinformatics analysis was used to identify significant differentially expressed genes and the associated biological processes. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to verify the sequencing data. A total of 1239 DEGs were found by transcriptional analysis of Aedes albopictus C6/36 cells that were infected and uninfected with dengue virus, among which 1133 were upregulated and 106 were downregulated. Further bioinformatics analysis showed that the upregulated DEGs were significantly enriched in signaling pathways such as the MAPK, Hippo, FoxO, Wnt, mTOR, and Notch; metabolic pathways and cellular physiological processes such as autophagy, endocytosis, and apoptosis. Downregulated DEGs were mainly enriched in DNA replication, pyrimidine metabolism, and repair pathways, including BER, NER, and MMR. The qRT-PCR results showed that the concordance between the RNA-Seq and RT-qPCR data was very high (92.3%). The results of this study provide more information about DENV2 infection of C6/36 cells at the transcriptome level, laying a foundation for further research on mosquito vector–virus interactions. These data provide candidate antiviral genes that can be used for further functional verification in the future.
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Carvalho VL, Long MT. Insect-Specific Viruses: An overview and their relationship to arboviruses of concern to humans and animals. Virology 2021; 557:34-43. [PMID: 33631523 DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2021.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Revised: 12/21/2020] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
The group of Insect-specific viruses (ISVs) includes viruses apparently restricted to insects based on their inability to replicate in the vertebrates. Increasing numbers of ISVs have been discovered and characterized representing a diverse number of viral families. However, most studies have focused on those ISVs belonging to the family Flaviviridae, which highlights the importance of ISV study from other viral families, which allow a better understanding for the mechanisms of transmission and evolution used for this diverse group of viruses. Some ISVs have shown the potential to modulate arboviruses replication and vector competence of mosquitoes. Based on this, ISVs may be used as an alternative tool for biological control, development of vaccines, and diagnostic platforms for arboviruses. In this review, we provide an update of the general characteristics of ISVs and their interaction with arboviruses that infect vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valéria L Carvalho
- Department of Comparative, Diagnostic, and Population Medicine, University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine, 1945 SW 16th Ave, Gainesville, FL, 32608, USA; Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ministry of Health, Rodovia BR-316, Km 7, S/n, Ananindeua, Para, 67030-000, Brazil.
| | - Maureen T Long
- Department of Comparative, Diagnostic, and Population Medicine, University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine, 1945 SW 16th Ave, Gainesville, FL, 32608, USA.
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Dolan PT, Taguwa S, Rangel MA, Acevedo A, Hagai T, Andino R, Frydman J. Principles of dengue virus evolvability derived from genotype-fitness maps in human and mosquito cells. eLife 2021; 10:e61921. [PMID: 33491648 PMCID: PMC7880689 DOI: 10.7554/elife.61921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2020] [Accepted: 01/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Dengue virus (DENV) cycles between mosquito and mammalian hosts. To examine how DENV populations adapt to these different host environments, we used serial passage in human and mosquito cell lines and estimated fitness effects for all single-nucleotide variants in these populations using ultra-deep sequencing. This allowed us to determine the contributions of beneficial and deleterious mutations to the collective fitness of the population. Our analysis revealed that the continuous influx of a large burden of deleterious mutations counterbalances the effect of rare, host-specific beneficial mutations to shape the path of adaptation. Beneficial mutations preferentially map to intrinsically disordered domains in the viral proteome and cluster to defined regions in the genome. These phenotypically redundant adaptive alleles may facilitate host-specific DENV adaptation. Importantly, the evolutionary constraints described in our simple system mirror trends observed across DENV and Zika strains, indicating it recapitulates key biophysical and biological constraints shaping long-term viral evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick T Dolan
- Stanford University, Department of BiologyStanfordUnited States
- University of California, Microbiology and Immunology, San FranciscoSan FranciscoUnited States
| | - Shuhei Taguwa
- Stanford University, Department of BiologyStanfordUnited States
| | | | - Ashley Acevedo
- University of California, Microbiology and Immunology, San FranciscoSan FranciscoUnited States
| | - Tzachi Hagai
- Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv UniversityTel AvivIsrael
| | - Raul Andino
- University of California, Microbiology and Immunology, San FranciscoSan FranciscoUnited States
| | - Judith Frydman
- Stanford University, Department of BiologyStanfordUnited States
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Laureti M, Paradkar PN, Fazakerley JK, Rodriguez-Andres J. Superinfection Exclusion in Mosquitoes and Its Potential as an Arbovirus Control Strategy. Viruses 2020; 12:v12111259. [PMID: 33167513 PMCID: PMC7694488 DOI: 10.3390/v12111259] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2020] [Revised: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 10/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The continuing emergence of arbovirus disease outbreaks around the world, despite the use of vector control strategies, warrants the development of new strategies to reduce arbovirus transmission. Superinfection exclusion, a phenomenon whereby a primary virus infection prevents the replication of a second closely related virus, has potential to control arbovirus disease emergence and outbreaks. This phenomenon has been observed for many years in plants, insects and mammalian cells. In this review, we discuss the significance of identifying novel vector control strategies, summarize studies exploring arbovirus superinfection exclusion and consider the potential for this phenomenon to be the basis for novel arbovirus control strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathilde Laureti
- Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne, VIC 3000 Melbourne, Australia;
- CSIRO Health & Biosecurity, Australian Centre for Diseases Preparedness, VIC 3220 Geelong, Australia;
- Correspondence: (M.L.); (J.R.-A.)
| | - Prasad N. Paradkar
- CSIRO Health & Biosecurity, Australian Centre for Diseases Preparedness, VIC 3220 Geelong, Australia;
| | - John K. Fazakerley
- Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne, VIC 3000 Melbourne, Australia;
| | - Julio Rodriguez-Andres
- Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne, VIC 3000 Melbourne, Australia;
- Correspondence: (M.L.); (J.R.-A.)
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Perrin A, Gosselin-Grenet AS, Rossignol M, Ginibre C, Scheid B, Lagneau C, Chandre F, Baldet T, Ogliastro M, Bouyer J. Variation in the susceptibility of urban Aedes mosquitoes infected with a densovirus. Sci Rep 2020; 10:18654. [PMID: 33122748 PMCID: PMC7596516 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75765-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Urban Aedes mosquitoes are vectors of many viruses affecting human health such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses. Insecticide resistance and environmental toxicity risks hamper the effectiveness of chemical control against these mosquito vectors. Alternative control methods, such as the use of mosquito-specific entomopathogenic viruses should be explored. Numerous studies have focused on evaluating the potential of different densoviruses species as biological control agents. However, knowledge on the extent of inter- and intra-specific variations in the susceptibility of Aedes mosquitoes to infection by different densoviruses remains insufficient. In this study, we compared infection and mortality rates induced by the Aedes albopictus densovirus 2 in different strains of Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The two Aedes species were different in terms of susceptibility to viral infection. Under laboratory conditions, Aedes albopictus densovirus 2 appeared more virulent for the different strains of Aedes aegypti tested than for those of Aedes albopictus. In addition, we also found significant intra-specific variation in infection and mortality rates. Thus, although even if Aedes albopictus densoviruses could be powerful biocontrol agents used in the management of urban Aedes populations, our results also call into question the use of single viral isolate as biocontrol agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurélie Perrin
- UMR MIVEGEC, CNRS, IRD, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
| | | | - Marie Rossignol
- UMR MIVEGEC, CNRS, IRD, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Carole Ginibre
- UMR MIVEGEC, CNRS, IRD, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | | | - Christophe Lagneau
- EID-med, Entente Interdépartementale pour la Démoustication du littoral méditerranéen, Montpellier, France
| | - Fabrice Chandre
- UMR MIVEGEC, CNRS, IRD, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Thierry Baldet
- ASTRE, Cirad, INRAE, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | | | - Jérémy Bouyer
- ASTRE, Cirad, INRAE, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France.,Insect Pest Control Sub-Programme, Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/International Atomic Energy Agency, Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, 1400, Vienna, Austria
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Bellone R, Lequime S, Jupille H, Göertz GP, Aubry F, Mousson L, Piorkowski G, Yen PS, Gabiane G, Vazeille M, Sakuntabhai A, Pijlman GP, de Lamballerie X, Lambrechts L, Failloux AB. Experimental adaptation of dengue virus 1 to Aedes albopictus mosquitoes by in vivo selection. Sci Rep 2020; 10:18404. [PMID: 33110109 PMCID: PMC7591890 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75042-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2020] [Accepted: 10/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
In most of the world, Dengue virus (DENV) is mainly transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti while in Europe, Aedes albopictus is responsible for human DENV cases since 2010. Identifying mutations that make DENV more competent for transmission by Ae. albopictus will help to predict emergence of epidemic strains. Ten serial passages in vivo in Ae. albopictus led to select DENV-1 strains with greater infectivity for this vector in vivo and in cultured mosquito cells. These changes were mediated by multiple adaptive mutations in the virus genome, including a mutation at position 10,418 in the DENV 3′UTR within an RNA stem-loop structure involved in subgenomic flavivirus RNA production. Using reverse genetics, we showed that the 10,418 mutation alone does not confer a detectable increase in transmission efficiency in vivo. These results reveal the complex adaptive landscape of DENV transmission by mosquitoes and emphasize the role of epistasis in shaping evolutionary trajectories of DENV variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel Bellone
- Arboviruses and Insect Vectors Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.,Sorbonne Université, Collège doctoral, 75005, Paris, France
| | - Sebastian Lequime
- Sorbonne Université, Collège doctoral, 75005, Paris, France.,Insect-Virus Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR2000, CNRS, Paris, France.,Cluster of Microbial Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Henri Jupille
- Arboviruses and Insect Vectors Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Giel P Göertz
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Fabien Aubry
- Insect-Virus Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR2000, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Laurence Mousson
- Arboviruses and Insect Vectors Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Géraldine Piorkowski
- Unité des Virus Émergents (UVE: Aix-Marseille Univ-IRD 190-Inserm 1207-IHU Méditerranée Infection), Marseille, France
| | - Pei-Shi Yen
- Arboviruses and Insect Vectors Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Gaelle Gabiane
- Arboviruses and Insect Vectors Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Marie Vazeille
- Arboviruses and Insect Vectors Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Anavaj Sakuntabhai
- Functional Genetics of Infectious Diseases Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Gorben P Pijlman
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Xavier de Lamballerie
- Unité des Virus Émergents (UVE: Aix-Marseille Univ-IRD 190-Inserm 1207-IHU Méditerranée Infection), Marseille, France
| | - Louis Lambrechts
- Insect-Virus Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR2000, CNRS, Paris, France
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