Genetic detection and characterization of Lujo virus, a new hemorrhagic fever-associated arenavirus from southern Africa.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Briese T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2680969 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Genetic detection and characterization of Lujo virus, a new hemorrhagic fever-associated arenavirus from southern Africa.
Briese Thomas T Paweska Janusz T JT McMullan Laura K LK Hutchison Stephen K SK Street Craig C Palacios Gustavo G Khristova Marina L ML Weyer Jacqueline J Swanepoel Robert R Egholm Michael M Nichol Stuart T ST Lipkin W Ian WI
PLoS pathogens 20090529 5
Lujo virus (LUJV), a new member of the family Arenaviridae and the first hemorrhagic fever-associated arenavirus from the Old World discovered in three decades, was isolated in South Africa during an outbreak of human disease characterized by nosocomial transmission and an unprecedented high case fatality rate of 80% (4/5 cases). Unbiased pyrosequencing of RNA extracts from serum and tissues of outbreak victims enabled identification and detailed phylogenetic characterization within 72 hours of ...[more]
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Project description:Lassa fever virus is a zoonotic pathogen that plagues the endemic areas of West Africa. Rhesus macaques infected with a related arenavirus, LCMV-WE, serve as a model for Lassa-infection of human beings. Using a dose similar to that expected from a needle-stick, monkeys experience an early pre-viremic phase (day 1-3), a viremic phase with febrile onset (day 4-7), and, like human beings who succumb, they die within two weeks. Our goal was to monitor changes in gene expression that parallel disease progression in an effort to 1) identify genes with altered expression after infection, 2) identify genes that could discriminate between a virulent and non-virulent infection, and 3) identify genes encoding products that could serve as treatment targets for FDA-approved pharmaceuticals. Genes related to all three of these categories have been identified and some have been given preliminary validation by quantitative PCR and proteomic studies. These genes will be valuable candidates for future validation as prognostic biomarkers We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying cellularisation and identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes during this process. Keywords: time course
2007-09-01 | GSE5790 | GEO
Project description:BackgroundIn 2008 a nosocomial outbreak of five cases of viral hemorrhagic fever due to a novel arenavirus, Lujo virus, occurred in Johannesburg, South Africa. Lujo virus is only the second pathogenic arenavirus, after Lassa virus, to be recognized in Africa and the first in over 40 years. Because of the remote, resource-poor, and often politically unstable regions where Lassa fever and other viral hemorrhagic fevers typically occur, there have been few opportunities to undertake in-depth study of their clinical manifestations, transmission dynamics, pathogenesis, or response to treatment options typically available in industrialized countries.Methods and findingsWe describe the clinical features of five cases of Lujo hemorrhagic fever and summarize their clinical management, as well as providing additional epidemiologic detail regarding the 2008 outbreak. Illness typically began with the abrupt onset of fever, malaise, headache, and myalgias followed successively by sore throat, chest pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, rash, minor hemorrhage, subconjunctival injection, and neck and facial swelling over the first week of illness. No major hemorrhage was noted. Neurological signs were sometimes seen in the late stages. Shock and multi-organ system failure, often with evidence of disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, ensued in the second week, with death in four of the five cases. Distinctive treatment components of the one surviving patient included rapid commencement of the antiviral drug ribavirin and administration of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins), N-acetylcysteine, and recombinant factor VIIa.ConclusionsLujo virus causes a clinical syndrome remarkably similar to Lassa fever. Considering the high case-fatality and significant logistical impediments to controlled treatment efficacy trials for viral hemorrhagic fever, it is both logical and ethical to explore the use of the various compounds used in the treatment of the surviving case reported here in future outbreaks. Clinical observations should be systematically recorded to facilitate objective evaluation of treatment efficacy. Due to the risk of secondary transmission, viral hemorrhagic fever precautions should be implemented for all cases of Lujo virus infection, with specialized precautions to protect against aerosols when performing enhanced-risk procedures such as endotracheal intubation.
| S-EPMC4230886 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Lassa fever virus is a zoonotic pathogen that plagues the endemic areas of West Africa. Rhesus macaques infected with a related arenavirus, LCMV-WE, serve as a model for Lassa-infection of human beings. Using a dose similar to that expected from a needle-stick, monkeys experience an early pre-viremic phase (day 1-3), a viremic phase with febrile onset (day 4-7), and, like human beings who succumb, they die within two weeks. Our goal was to monitor changes in gene expression that parallel disease progression in an effort to 1) identify genes with altered expression after infection, 2) identify genes that could discriminate between a virulent and non-virulent infection, and 3) identify genes encoding products that could serve as treatment targets for FDA-approved pharmaceuticals. Genes related to all three of these categories have been identified and some have been given preliminary validation by quantitative PCR and proteomic studies. These genes will be valuable candidates for future validation as prognostic biomarkers; We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying cellularisation and identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes during this process. Experiment Overall Design: Rhesus macaques inoculated with a lethal dose of LCMV-WE were used to model human infection with Lassa fever virus (Lukashevich et al 2002, 2003; Rodas et al 2004). To identify molecular events that occur during the first few days of virus exposure, we monitored gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples by microarray analysis. Approximately 150 samples from 23 different rhesus macaques (Table 1) were hybridized to Affymetrix U133 chips. Experiment Overall Design: Affymetrix U133 arrays cover the entire human genome with approximately 54,000 gene fragments representing approximately 22,000 genes. The use of these human arrays for macaque transcriptome analysis has been validated by other laboratories (Ace et al, 2004 Wang et al, 2004), i.e. 99.8% of the array elements for which human DNA gave a signal >1.4-fold over background were also >1.4 over background for macaque DNA (Rubins et al, 2004). LCMV-infected blood samples were compared to uninfected controls and genes with over two-fold change in expression were designated âdifferentially expressedâ (Fig. 1). Thus, out of 54,000 elements, 8410 (16%) were differentially regulated with a >2-fold change in expression [supplementary Table 1 has these genes in order of the magnitude of their differential expression]. Experiment Overall Design: Virus was detectable in these monkeys at day 4 after infection by plaque assay and by RT-PCR of blood cDNA (Djavani et al 2005). Although virus is replicating in monocytes, endothelial cells, liver, spleen, and peripheral lymphoid organs soon after inoculation (Rai et al, 1997; Lukashevich et al, 2002), virus is not detectable in the circulation for the first three days. Thus we define the early, pre-viremic stage as days 1-3, and a later viremic stage as days 4-7. Although the LCMV-Armstrong strain replicated as well in cell culture as LCMV-WE, the LCMV-Arm-infected monkeys did not experience viremia, i.e. viral nucleic acid were detected in tissues but virus loads were not high enough to be detected in the circulation. The Arm-infected monkeys resisted a lethal challenge with LCMV-WE, further confirming that they had been productively infected (Rodas et al, 2004). An overview of gene expression in monkeys shows a trend to down-regulate genes at the onset of viremia followed by a sharp increase in up-regulated genes. Those monkeys that did not experience viremia (Armstrong-infected) showed no dramatic down-regulation trend (Fig. 1). Over the entire study period of 7 days, the number of down-regulated genes in the WE-infected macaques was significantly more than the number seen in the Arm-infected monkeys (p < 0.005).
2008-06-14 | E-GEOD-5790 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Lujo virus (LUJV) is a novel member of the Arenaviridae family that was first identified in 2008 after an outbreak of severe hemorrhagic fever (HF). In what was a small but rapidly progressing outbreak, this previously unknown virus was transmitted from the critically ill index patient to 4 attending healthcare workers. Four persons died during this outbreak, for a total case fatality of 80% (4/5). The suspected rodent source of the initial exposure to LUJV remains a mystery. Because of the ease of transmission, high case fatality, and novel nature of LUJV, we sought to establish an animal model of LUJV HF. Initial attempts in mice failed, but infection of inbred strain 13/N guinea pigs resulted in lethal disease. A total of 41 adult strain 13/N guinea pigs were infected with either wild-type LUJV or a full-length recombinant LUJV. Results demonstrated that strain 13/N guinea pigs provide an excellent model of severe and lethal LUJV HF that closely resembles what is known of the human disease. All infected animals experienced consistent weight loss (3-5% per day) and clinical illness characterized by ocular discharge, ruffled fur, hunched posture, and lethargy. Uniform lethality occurred by 11-16 days post-infection. All animals developed disseminated LUJV infection in various organs (liver, spleen, lung, and kidney), and leukopenia, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia, coagulopathy, and elevated transaminase levels. Serial euthanasia studies revealed a temporal pattern of virus dissemination and increasing severity of disease, primarily targeting the liver, spleen, lungs, and lower gastrointestinal tract. Establishing an animal LUJV model is an important first step towards understanding the high pathogenicity of LUJV and developing vaccines and antiviral therapeutic drugs for this highly transmissible and lethal emerging pathogen.
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Project description:Background:A mobile laboratory transportable on commercial flights was developed to enable local response to viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks. Methods:The development progressed from use of mobile real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction to mobile real-time recombinase polymerase amplification. In this study, we describe various stages of the mobile laboratory development. Results:A brief overview of mobile laboratory deployments, which culminated in the first on-site detection of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in March 2014, and their successful use in a campaign to roll back EVD cases in Conakry in the West Africa Ebola virus outbreak are described. Conclusions:The developed mobile laboratory successfully enabled local teams to perform rapid disgnostic testing for viral hemorrhagic fever.
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Project description:Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV) is among the deadliest known human pathogens, causing severe hemorrhagic fever with high case fatality rates ranging from 70-90%. The lack of effective vaccines or treatment available for ZEBOV renders this pathogen as a significant global biodefense threat, as evidenced by the current, highly lethal outbreak of a novel ZEBOV variant in western Africa. Existing mouse models of lethal ZEBOV infection do not reproduce hallmark symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) including prolonged blood coagulation, acute hepatitis, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and death from hemorrhagic shock, thus restricting pathogenesis studies to non-human primates (NHP). This has prevented rapid evaluation of countermeasures in outbreak scenarios, and impeded a comprehensive understanding of how host responses to infection contribute to severe EHF disease. Here we demonstrate that mice from the Collaborative Cross (CC), a panel of reproducible, recombinant inbred animals that span the genetic breadth of three murine subspecies, are susceptible to a spectrum of disease phenotypes following ZEBOV infection. In contrast to C57Bl6/J mice, which develop lethal disease without symptoms of EHF, CC recombinant inbred intercrossed (CC-RIX) lines develop either complete resistance to lethal disease or severe EHF characterized by prolonged coagulation times and 100% mortality. Disease resistance and survival is not dependent on viral tropism, as both resistant and EHF-susceptible lines show similar inflammation and cytopathic effect in target organs. Transcriptomics reveal potential mechanisms for both induction of severe hemorrhage in EHF mediated by IL-6 and vascular activation, and resistance to lethal infection by induction of lymphocyte differentiation and cellular adhesion. These data demonstrate that host responses specific to unique genetic backgrounds determine susceptibility to hemorrhagic syndrome independent of virus replication. The CC represents a novel mouse model for studying EHF pathogenesis, and we anticipate that it will be applied immediately to developing and evaluating therapeutic countermeasures. Microarrays were performed on liver and spleen samples from mice collected at days 1, 3, and 5 post-infection with mouse adapted Zaire ebolavirus or from time-matched mock-infected animals.
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Project description:Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV) is among the deadliest known human pathogens, causing severe hemorrhagic fever with high case fatality rates ranging from 70-90%. The lack of effective vaccines or treatment available for ZEBOV renders this pathogen as a significant global biodefense threat, as evidenced by the current, highly lethal outbreak of a novel ZEBOV variant in western Africa. Existing mouse models of lethal ZEBOV infection do not reproduce hallmark symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) including prolonged blood coagulation, acute hepatitis, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and death from hemorrhagic shock, thus restricting pathogenesis studies to non-human primates (NHP). This has prevented rapid evaluation of countermeasures in outbreak scenarios, and impeded a comprehensive understanding of how host responses to infection contribute to severe EHF disease. Here we demonstrate that mice from the Collaborative Cross (CC), a panel of reproducible, recombinant inbred animals that span the genetic breadth of three murine subspecies, are susceptible to a spectrum of disease phenotypes following ZEBOV infection. In contrast to C57Bl6/J mice, which develop lethal disease without symptoms of EHF, CC recombinant inbred intercrossed (CC-RIX) lines develop either complete resistance to lethal disease or severe EHF characterized by prolonged coagulation times and 100% mortality. Disease resistance and survival is not dependent on viral tropism, as both resistant and EHF-susceptible lines show similar inflammation and cytopathic effect in target organs. Transcriptomics reveal potential mechanisms for both induction of severe hemorrhage in EHF mediated by IL-6 and vascular activation, and resistance to lethal infection by induction of lymphocyte differentiation and cellular adhesion. These data demonstrate that host responses specific to unique genetic backgrounds determine susceptibility to hemorrhagic syndrome independent of virus replication. The CC represents a novel mouse model for studying EHF pathogenesis, and we anticipate that it will be applied immediately to developing and evaluating therapeutic countermeasures.
2014-05-01 | GSE57214 | GEO
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