Protection of chickens from lethal influenza virus infection by influenza A/chicken/Pennsylvania/1/83 virus: characterization of the protective effect

Defective Interfering Particles with Broad-Acting Antiviral Activity for Dengue, Zika, Yellow Fever, Respiratory Syncytial and SARS-CoV-2 Virus Infection

More than 100 arboviruses, almost all of which have an RNA genome, cause disease in humans. RNA viruses are causing unprecedented health system challenges worldwide, many with little or no specific therapies or vaccines available. Certain species of mosquito can carry dengue virus (DENV), Zika virus (ZIKV) and yellow fever virus (YFV), where co-infection of these viruses has occurred. Here, we found that purified synthetic defective interfering particles (DIPs) derived from DENV type 2 (DENV-2) strongly suppressed replication of the aforementioned viruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and also the novel emerging virus SARS-CoV-2 in human cells. DENV DIPs produced in bioreactors, purified by column chromatography, and concentrated are virus-like particles that are about half the diameter of a typical DENV particle, but with similar ratios of the viral structural proteins envelope and capsid. Overall, DIP-treated cells inhibited DENV, ZIKV, YFV, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2 by at least 98% by mechanisms which included interferon (IFN)-dependent cellular antiviral responses. IMPORTANCE DIPs are spontaneously derived virus mutants with deletions in genes that block viral replication. DIPs play important roles in modulation of viral disease, innate immune responses, virus persistence and virus evolution. Here, we investigated the antiviral activity of highly purified synthetic DIPs derived from DENV, which were produced in bioreactors. DENV DIPs purified by column chromatography strongly inhibited five different RNA viruses, including DENV, ZIKV, YFV, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2 in human cells. DENV DIPs inhibited virus replication via delivery of a small, noninfectious viral RNA that activated cellular innate immunity, resulting in robust type 1 interferon responses. The work here presents a pathway for DIP production which is adaptable to Good Manufacturing Practice, so that their preclinical testing should be suitable for evaluation in subjects.

Exploiting Genetic Interference for Antiviral Therapy

Rapidly evolving viruses are a major threat to human health. Such viruses are often highly pathogenic (e.g., influenza virus, HIV, Ebola virus) and routinely circumvent therapeutic intervention through mutational escape. Error-prone genome replication generates heterogeneous viral populations that rapidly adapt to new selection pressures, leading to resistance that emerges with treatment. However, population heterogeneity bears a cost: when multiple viral variants replicate within a cell, they can potentially interfere with each other, lowering viral fitness. This genetic interference can be exploited for antiviral strategies, either by taking advantage of a virus’s inherent genetic diversity or through generating de novo interference by engineering a competing genome. Here, we discuss two such antiviral strategies, dominant drug targeting and therapeutic interfering particles. Both strategies harness the power of genetic interference to surmount two particularly vexing obstacles—the evolution of drug resistance and targeting therapy to high-risk populations—both of which impede treatment in resource-poor settings.

Emerging roles for the influenza A virus nuclear export protein (NEP)

Influenza virus is a major human and animal pathogen causing seasonal epidemics and occasional pandemics in the human population that are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Influenza A virus, a member of the orthomyxovirus family, contains an RNA genome with a coding capacity for a limited number of proteins. In addition to ensuring the structural integrity of virions, these viral proteins facilitate the replication of virus in the host cell. Consequently, viral proteins often evolve to perform multiple functions, the influenza A virus nuclear export protein (NEP) (also referred to as non-structural protein 2, or NS2) being an emerging example. NEP was originally implicated in mediating the nuclear export of viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes, which are synthesized in the infected cell nucleus and are assembled into progeny virions at the cell membrane. However, since then, new and unexpected roles for NEP during the influenza virus life cycle have started to emerge. These recent studies have shown NEP to be involved in regulating the accumulation of viral genomic vRNA and antigenomic cRNA as well as viral mRNA synthesized by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Subsequently, this regulation of viral RNA transcription and replication by NEP was shown to be an important factor in the adaptation of highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses to the mammalian host. Unexpectedly, NEP has also been implicated in recruiting a cellular ATPase to the cell membrane to aid the efficient release of budding virions. Accordingly, NEP is proposed to play multiple biologically important roles during the influenza virus life cycle.

Interference among viruses circulating and administered in Hungary from 1931 to 2008

Viral interference was discovered about 60 years ago. Molecular epidemiology revealed that this phenomenon possesses important biological implications, it can reduce the epidemic spread of certain viruses from time to time (influenza and enteroviruses) and the efficiency of live vaccination can be impaired, too. Phenomena observed during the last 80 years in Hungary are analyzed. It is suggested to concentrate the distribution of MMR vaccines to seasons of limited influenza and enterovirus circulation. Interference seems to impair the progress of wild poliovirus eradication in the endemic tropical countries. It is recommended to enhance enterovirus surveillance in the region of European countries, since the exchange of the oral poliovirus vaccine to the enhanced inactivated polio vaccine might result in enhanced circulation of non-polio enteroviruses leading to the increase in the number of type I (juvenile) diabetes patients.

Interference by a non-defective variant of influenza A virus is due to enhanced RNA synthesis and assembly

Mouse-adapted influenza A virus, FM-MA, interferes with the replication of wild-type strains on co-infection. The interference phenotype was previously mapped to FM-MA segment 2 encoding a mutant PB1 protein, the catalytic component of the RNA polymerase complex. To identify the point at which FM-MA interferes with wild-type A/HK/1/68 (HK), the relative levels of transcription and genome replication of the PB1, NP and M1 genes were determined for FM-MA and HK viruses in co-infected cells using RT-PCR. All stages of HK macromolecular synthesis (primary and secondary transcription, genomic RNA, complementary RNA and protein synthesis) were suppressed relative to FM-MA. Infection with HK virus alone resulted in the accumulation of similar or greater amounts of RNA at late times post-infection relative to FM-MA thus indicating that the presence of FM-MA specifically compromised HK transcription and replication in co-infected cells. However early in infection FM-MA was ten times more active in mRNA transcription than HK or its parental strain FM. FM-MA's ability to interfere was primarily due to an increased capacity for primary transcription. FM-MA genomes were also selectively assembled into progeny virus from cells co-infected with HK and FM-MA, a step which was distinct from the capacity for enhanced RNA synthesis. This suggests that interference of HK growth by FM-MA in mixed infections results from two distinct events: a preferential synthesis of FM-MA-specific macromolecules which is then augmented by a preferential assembly of FM-MA genomes.

Deduced amino acid sequences of the haemagglutinin of H5N1 avian influenza virus isolates from an outbreak in turkeys in Norfolk, England

The deduced amino acid sequences of the haemagglutinins of avian influenza viruses, isolated from an outbreak in turkeys in Norfolk, England in 1991/92, were determined by PCR amplification and cycle sequencing. Both the highly pathogenic and avirulent isolates had the same cleavage site sequence with multiple-basic amino acids, which normally would be expected only for the former. Clones derived by plaque picking from the highly pathogenic isolate ranged from low to very high pathogenicity in vivo and these, and the original isolates, showed nucleotide and amino acid variation at one or more of five possible sites, none of which were at the cleavage site. None of these site variations correlated with pathogenicity, suggesting that the factor responsible for the suppression of the expected effects of the multiple-basic amino acid haemagglutinin cleavage site in the avirulent isolate may not have been part of the haemagglutinin amino acid sequence.

Defective interfering particles and virus evolution

Almost all viruses produce replication-defective mutants that have complex effects on the growth and evolution of the virus in culture. These effects can be explained qualitatively by a simple mathematical model. However, the model shows that the quantitative effects of these mutants are intrinsically unpredictable.

Interference is controlled by segment 2 and possibly by segment 8 of the nondefective interfering influenza virus variant A/FM/1/47-MA

On mouse adaption of A/FM/1/47, a variant, A/FM/1/47-MA (FM-MA), that had acquired the properties of increased virulence and interference was produced. Coinfection of cells with FM-MA and prototype strains of influenza virus yielded > 100-fold more FM-MA virus than prototype virus, whereas coinfection with the same prototype strains and the parental A/FM/1/47 virus produced equivalent yields, indicating that FM-MA had acquired mutations that confer the property of interference during mouse adaption. FM-MA is a nondefective interfering virus that grows to a high titer in vivo and in vitro. It has previously been shown that segments 4, 7, and 8 and possibly segment 5 account for the increased virulence. In this study we show by genetic analysis of FM-MA x A/HK/1/68 reassortants that segment 2, coding for the polymerase-associated protein PB1, and possibly segment 8, encoding the NS1 and NS2 proteins, control the ability of FM-MA to interfere. Interference could not be overcome by increasing the titer of the coinfecting strain, but delaying FM-MA infection by 4 to 6 h did avoid interference. During interference of A/HK/1/68, protein synthesis was inhibited by less than 65% throughout coinfection. Given the kinetics of interference and the small perturbation in protein synthesis, interference appeared to occur at the level of late genome replication or virus assembly. Virulence and interference in FM-MA were not linked. An interfering avirulent FM-MA x A/HK/1/68 reassortant, E07, was capable of protecting mice against lethal pneumonia due to a virulent noninterfering reassortant, H04.