Interactions between enteroviruses and autophagy in vivo

Autophagy plays a protective role during many viral and bacterial infections. Predictably, evolution has led to several viruses developing mechanisms by which to evade the inhibitory effects of the pathway. However, one family of viruses, the picornaviruses, has gone one step further, by actively exploiting autophagy. Using mice in which Atg5 has been conditionally deleted in pancreatic acinar cells, we have studied the outcome of infection by coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), a member of the enterovirus genus and picornavirus family. Two key findings emerged: disruption of autophagy (1) dramatically compromised virus replication in vivo, and (2) significantly limited pancreatic disease.     

辽宁省首株柯萨奇病毒B组5型全基因组序列分析

研究引起辽宁地区手足口病的柯萨奇病毒B组5型（coxsackievirus B5,CV-B5）基因组特征。对2018年从辽宁省688份肠道病毒核酸阳性的标本中分离到的1株CV-B5进行高通量测序，并对其全基因组进行遗传进化分析。结果表明，CV-B5辽宁分离株与国内流行株的全基因组核苷酸序列同源性为78.5%～97%，氨基酸序列同源性为75.3%～96.7%。基于全基因组的进化分析将CV-B5流行株分为A～D四个基因型，辽宁分离株属于D基因型。通过重组分析发现其在P3区的3D区段发生重组。首次在辽宁地区手足口病患儿中分离出CV-B5，辽宁省分离株（LN2018-23-21/CHN/2018）可能为重组株。     

Carvedilol has stronger anti-inflammation and anti-virus effects than metoprolol in murine model with coxsackievirus B3-induced viral myocarditis

Aims

This study aims to compare the effects of carvedilol and metoprolol in alleviating viral myocarditis (VMC) induced by coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) in mice.

Methods

A total of 116 Balb/c mice were included in this study. Ninety-six mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with CVB3 to induce VMC. The CVB3 inoculated mice were evenly divided into myocarditis group (n = 32), carvedilol group (n = 32) and metoprolol group (n = 32). Twenty mice (control group) were inoculated intraperitoneally with normal saline. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and histopathologic scoring were used to investigate the effects of carvedilol and metoprolol on myocardial histopathologic changes on days 3 and 5. In addition, serum cTn-I levels, cytokine levels and virus titers were determined using chemiluminescence immunoassay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and plaque assay, respectively, on days 3 and 5. Finally, the levels of phosphorylated p38MAPK were studied using immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting on day 5.

Results

Carvedilol had a stronger effect than metoprolol in reducing the pathological scores of VMC induced by CVB3. Both carvedilol and metoprolol reduced the levels of cTn-I, but the effect of carvedilol was stronger. Carvedilol and metoprolol decreased the levels of myocardial pro-inflammatory cytokines and increased the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokine, with the effects of carvedilol being stronger than those of metoprolol. Carvedilol had a stronger effect in reducing myocardial virus concentration compared with metoprolol. Carvedilol was stronger than metoprolol in decreasing the levels of myocardial phosphorylated p38MAPK.

Conclusions

In conclusion, carvedilol was more potent than metoprolol in ameliorating myocardial lesions in VMC, probably due to its stronger modulation of the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting the activation of p38MAPK pathway through β1- and β2-adrenoreceptors.     

Pregnancy Loss Following Coxsackievirus B3 Infection in Mice during Early Gestation Due toHigh Expression of Coxsackievirus-Adenovirus Receptor (CAR) in Uterus and Embryo

Coxsackieviruses are important pathogens in children and the outcomes of neonatal infection can be serious or fatal. However, the outcomes of coxsackievirus infection during early gestation are not well defined. In this study, we examined the possibility of vertical transmission of coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) and the effects of CVB3 infection on early pregnancy of ICR mice. We found that the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) was highly expressed not only in embryos but also in the uterus of ICR mice. CVB3 replicated in the uterus 1 to 7 days post-infection (dpi), with the highest titer at 3 dpi. The pregnancy loss rate in mice infected with CVB3 during early gestation was 38.3%, compared to 4.7% and 2.7% in mock-infected and UV-inactivated-CVB3 infected pregnant mice, respectively. These data suggest that the uterus and embryo, which express abundant CAR, are important targets of CVB3 and that the vertical transmission of CVB3 during early gestation induces pregnancy loss.     

高压力制备柯萨奇病毒疫苗

以HeLa细胞和BALB／c小鼠为模型,研究了高压力对柯萨B组病毒（CVB）感染活性和免疫原性的影响,发现在230MPa压力下,结合其他相应的物理条件,CVB的感染活性可完全消失。该CVB仍具有抗原性,可诱导小鼠产生CVB特异性抗性,效价可达1：1500。用高压力处理的CVB免疫小鼠,再用正常CVB攻击,其生存率为67％,具有疫苗的特性。这些结果表明,高压力处理的CVB具有免疫保护作用,可作为一种具有潜在应用前景的病毒疫苗。     

Cleavage and degradation of EDEM1 promotes coxsackievirus B3 replication via ATF6a‐mediated unfolded protein response signalling

Our previous study of coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3)‐induced unfolded protein responses (UPR) found that overexpression of ATF6a enhances CVB3 VP1 capsid protein production and increases viral particle formation. These findings implicate that ATF6a signalling benefits CVB3 replication. However, the mechanism by which ATF6a signalling is transduced to promote virus replication is unclear. In this study, using a Tet‐On inducible ATF6a HeLa cell line, we found that ATF6a signalling downregulated the protein expression of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) degradation‐enhancing α‐mannosidase‐like protein 1 (EDEM1), resulting in accumulation of CVB3 VP1 protein; in contrast, expression of a dominant negative ATF6a had the opposite effect. Furthermore, we found that EDEM1 was cleaved by both CVB3 protease 3C and virus‐activated caspase and subsequently degraded via the ubiquitin‐proteasome pathway. However, overexpression of EDEM1 caused VP1 degradation, likely via a glycosylation‐independent and ubiquitin‐lysosome pathway. Finally, we demonstrated that CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated knockout of EDEM1 increased VP1 accumulation and thus CVB3 replication. This is the first study to report the ER protein quality control of non‐enveloped RNA virus and reveals a novel mechanism by which CVB3 evades host ER quality control pathways through cleavage and degradation of the UPR target gene EDEM1, to ultimately benefit its own replication.     

Oh,SNAP! How enteroviruses redirect autophagic traffic away from degradation

Picornaviruses, one of the major causes of human diseases ranging from the common cold to acute flaccid paralysis, have a short cytosolic lifecycle that, in cultured cells, ends in cell lysis. For years, the prevailing model was that these viruses exit from cells exclusively through cell lysis. However, over the last several years it has become apparent that for some picornaviruses, a macroautophagy/autophagy-related pathway can result in release of virus particles wrapped in a membrane containing autophagic markers. It has been proposed that this enveloped release predominates within hosts, allowing cell-to-cell movement of virus while minimizing exposure to the immune system. One reason that picornaviruses induce the autophagy pathway is to provide membrane scaffolds for RNA replication complexes. Perhaps more importantly, acidified autophagosomes (known as amphisomes) provide havens for maturation of new viral particles into infectious viruses. In back-to-back papers recently published in Cell Reports, our labs investigated a basic question: if picornavirus particles are maturing inside amphisomes, then how are they avoiding the typical degradative fate of autophagic cargo and exiting the cell intact?     

Solution structure of the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor domain 2

The coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) mediates entry of coxsackievirus and adenovirus. CAR possesses an extracellular region that is comprised of 2 immunoglobulin domains termed CAR-D1 and CAR-D2. In the present work, the solution structure of CAR-D2, consisting of residues 142-235 of human CAR, has been determined by NMR spectroscopy. CAR-D2 is shown to be a beta-sandwich motif comprised of two beta-sheets, which are stabilized by two disulfide bonds. The first beta-sheet is comprised of beta-strands A, B, and E, and the second beta-sheet is comprised of beta-strands C, F, and G. A relatively hydrophobic helix is found between beta-strands C and E, which replaces beta-strand D of the classical c-type immunoglobulin fold.     

Homology modeling, docking, molecular dynamics simulation, and structural analyses of coxsakievirus B3 2A protease: an enzyme involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory myocarditis

2A protease of the pathogenic coxsackievirus B3 is key to the pathogenesis of inflammatory myocarditis and, therefore, an attractive drug target. However lack of a crystal structure impedes design of inhibitors. Here we predict 3D structure of CVB3 2A^pro based on sequence comparison and homology modeling with human rhinovirus 2A^pro. The two enzymes are remarkably similar in their core regions. However they have different conformations at the N-terminal. A large number of N-terminal hydrophobic residues reduce the thermal stability of CVB3 2A^pro, as we confirmed by fluorescence, western blot and turbidity measurement. Molecular dynamic simulation revealed that elevated temperature induces protein motion that results in frequent movement of the N-terminal coil. This may therefore induce successive active site changes and thus play an important role in destabilization of CVB3 2A^pro structure.