Pixuna virus (PIXV) and Río Negro virus (RNV) are mosquito-borne alphaviruses belonging to the Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE) complex, which includes pathogenic epizootic and enzootic subtypes responsible for life-threatening diseases in equines. Considering that the first steps in viral infection are crucial for the efficient production of new progeny, the aim of this study was to elucidate the early events of the replication cycle of these two viruses. To this end, we used chemical inhibitors and the expression of dominant-negative constructs to study the dependence of clathrin and endosomal pH on PIXV and RNV internalization mechanisms. We demonstrated that both viruses are internalized primarily via clathrin-mediated endocytosis, where the low pH in endosomes is crucial for viral replication. Contributing knowledge regarding the entry route of VEE complex members is important to understand the pathogenesis of these viruses and also to develop new antiviral strategies.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18846-w | DOI Listing |
Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev
March 2025
Beijing Institute of Tropical Medicine, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing Key Laboratory for Research on Prevention and Treatment of Tropical Diseases, Beijing, China.
In recent years, mRNA vaccines have emerged as a leading technology for preventing infectious diseases due to their rapid development and high immunogenicity. These vaccines encode viral antigens, which are translated into antigenic proteins within host cells, inducing both humoral and cellular immune responses. This review systematically examines the progress in mRNA vaccine research for major mosquito-borne viruses, including dengue virus, Zika virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, Chikungunya virus, yellow fever virus, Rift Valley fever virus, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroorganisms
November 2024
Biology Department, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras, San Juan 00931, Puerto Rico.
'Frozen' virus genome sequences are sampled from outbreaks and have unusually low sequence divergence when compared to genome sequences from historical strains. A growing number of 'frozen' virus genome sequences are being reported as virus genome sequencing becomes more common. Examples of 'frozen' sequences include the 1977 H1N1 'Russian' flu; Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus from Venezuela and Colombia in 1995; E71 sequences from a Hand, Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2007-2009 in China; and a polio strain isolated in 2014 from Anhui, China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Ther Nucleic Acids
March 2025
Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London W2 1PG, UK.
Self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) is an extremely promising platform because it can produce more protein for less RNA. We used a sort and sequence approach to identify host cell factors associated with transgene expression from saRNA; the hypothesis was that cells with different expression levels would have different transcriptomes. We tested this in CDK4/hTERT immortalized human muscle cells transfected with Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV)-derived saRNA encoding GFP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Immunol
January 2025
Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, United States.
Neurotropic alphaviruses such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) are critical human pathogens that continually expand to naïve populations and for which there are no licensed vaccines or therapeutics. VEEV is highly infectious via the aerosol route and is a recognized weaponizable biothreat that causes neurological disease in humans. The neuropathology of VEEV has been attributed to an inflammatory immune response in the brain yet the underlying mechanisms and specific immune cell populations involved are not fully elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Ther
December 2024
Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T1Z4; School of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T1Z4. Electronic address:
Self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) vectors are a next-generation RNA technology that extends the expression of heterologous genes. Clinical trials have shown the dose-sparing capacity of saRNA vectors in a vaccine context compared to conventional messenger RNA. However, saRNA vectors have historically been based on a limited number of alphaviruses, and only the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus-based saRNA vaccines have been used clinically.
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