Defining basic rules for hardening influenza A virus liquid condensates
Abstract
In biological systems, liquid and solid-like biomolecular condensates may contain the same molecules but their behaviour, including movement, elasticity and viscosity, is different on account of distinct physicochemical properties. As such, it is known that phase transitions affect the function of biological condensates and that material properties can be tuned by several factors including temperature, concentration and valency. It is, however, unclear if some factors are more efficient than others at regulating their behaviour. Viral infections are good systems to address this question as they form condensates de novo as part of their replication programmes. Here, we used influenza A virus liquid cytosolic condensates, A.K.A viral inclusions, to provide a proof of concept that liquid condensate hardening via changes in the valency of its components is more efficient than altering their concentration or the temperature of the cell. Liquid IAV inclusions may be hardened by targeting vRNP interactions via the known NP oligomerizing molecule, nucleozin, both in vitro and in vivo without affecting host proteome abundance nor solubility. This study is a starting point for understanding how to pharmacologically modulate the material properties of IAV inclusions and may offer opportunities for alternative antiviral strategies.
Data availability
The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE (PubMed ID: 34723319) partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD034778.oReviewer account details:oUsername: reviewer_pxd034778@ebi.ac.ukoPassword: BprURfLwAll computer code or algorithm used to generate the results reported in the paper are available at 10.5281/zenodo.7709159.All data for figures Figure 1-8 and Figure S1-2 are provided with this paper in 10.5281/zenodo.7709159. Sequences of described viruses are accessible from the NCBI virus under accession number GCF_000865725.1.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
European Research Council (101001521)
- Maria-João Amorim
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PD/BD/128436/2017,PD/BD/148391/2019 and UI/BD/152254/2021)
- Temitope Akhigbe Etibor
- Daniela Brás
- Victor Hugo Mello
European Commission Twinning Action Symbnet (952537)
- Maria-João Amorim
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Animals were group housed in individually ventilated cages with access to food and water ad libitum. This research project was ethically reviewed and approved by both the Ethics Committee and the Animal Welfare Body of the IGC (license reference: A003.2021), and by the Portuguese National Entity that regulates the use of laboratory animals (DGAV - Direção Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária (license references: 0421/000/000/2022, Controlling influenza A virus liquid organelles - LOFLU, funded by the European Research Council). All experiments conducted on animals followed the Portuguese (Decreto-Lei nº 113/2013) and European (Directive 2010/63/EU) legislations, concerning housing, husbandry, and animal welfare.
Copyright
© 2023, Etibor et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 2,115
- views
-
- 283
- downloads
-
- 16
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Medicine
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Persisting HIV reservoir viruses in resting CD4 T cells and other cellular subsets are a barrier to cure efforts. Early antiretroviral therapy (ART) enables post-treatment viral control in some cases, but mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesised that ART initiated before peak viremia impacts HIV-1 subtype C reservoirs. We studied 35 women at high risk of infection from Durban, South Africa, identified with hyperacute HIV by twice-weekly HIV-RNA testing. Participants included 11 starting ART at a median of 456 (297–1203) days post-onset of viremia (DPOV) and 24 at 1 (1–3) DPOV. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were used to measured total HIV-1 DNA by droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and sequence viral reservoir genomes by full-length proviral sequencing (FLIP-seq). ART during hyperacute infection blunted peak viremia (p<0.0001), but contemporaneous total HIV-1 DNA did not differ (p=0.104). Over 1 year, a decline of total HIV-1 DNA was observed in early treated persons (p=0.0004), but not late treated. Among 697 viral genome sequences, the proviral genetic landscape differed between untreated, late treated, and early treated groups. Intact genomes after 1 year were higher in untreated (31%) versus late treated (14%) and early treated (0%). Treatment in both late and early infection caused more rapid decay of intact (13% and 51% per month) versus defective (2% and 35%) viral genomes. However, intact genomes persisted 1 year post chronic treatment but were undetectable with early ART. Early ART also reduced phylogenetic diversity of intact genomes and limited cytotoxic T lymphocyte immune escape variants in the reservoir. Overall, ART initiated in hyperacute HIV-1 subtype C infection did not impact reservoir seeding but was associated with rapid intact viral genome decay, reduced genetic complexity, and limited immune escape, which may accelerate reservoir clearance in combination with other interventional strategies.
-
- Immunology and Inflammation
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that displays great variability in clinical phenotype. Many factors have been described to be correlated with its severity, and microbiota could play a key role in the infection, progression, and outcome of the disease. SARS-CoV-2 infection has been associated with nasopharyngeal and gut dysbiosis and higher abundance of opportunistic pathogens. To identify new prognostic markers for the disease, a multicentre prospective observational cohort study was carried out in COVID-19 patients divided into three cohorts based on symptomatology: mild (n = 24), moderate (n = 51), and severe/critical (n = 31). Faecal and nasopharyngeal samples were taken, and the microbiota was analysed. Linear discriminant analysis identified Mycoplasma salivarium, Prevotella dentalis, and Haemophilus parainfluenzae as biomarkers of severe COVID-19 in nasopharyngeal microbiota, while Prevotella bivia and Prevotella timonensis were defined in faecal microbiota. Additionally, a connection between faecal and nasopharyngeal microbiota was identified, with a significant ratio between P. timonensis (faeces) and P. dentalis and M. salivarium (nasopharyngeal) abundances found in critically ill patients. This ratio could serve as a novel prognostic tool for identifying severe COVID-19 cases.