Project description:A human embryonic fibroblast cell line was synchronously infected with poliovirus in the absence or presence of interferon-α, or with vacciniavirus, a virus that is not inhibited by interferon. The titers were sufficient to yield productive infection in a majority of the cells. The cells were harvested in triplicate at various time-points, and the transcriptosome compared with mock infected cells using oligo-based 35 k microarrays. The project had two purposes: to characterize the cellular response and to look for candidate genes involved in viral defense. The changes in gene expression due to vaccinia virus did not correspond to those caused by poliovirus. More surprisingly, neither did the changes when comparing 8 h and 16 h of poliovirus infection. However, a large proportion of the genes up-regulated by interferon-α were also up-regulated by poliovirus, both at 8 h and 16 h. Interferon-α inhibited poliovirus replication, thus the observations suggest that the cells do launch an antiviral response to poliovirus. Moreover, as interferon genes were not induced, the data indicate that several of the relevant genes can be activated in an interferon independent manner. Further analyses of the data led to a list of candidate antiviral genes. Functional information was limited, or absent, for most of these genes. Keywords: Poliovirus; Vacciniavirus; Interferon; Microarray; Gene expression; Defense genes
Project description:Retrospective molecular and phenotypic characterization of a vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) type 1 isolate (7/b/97) isolated from sewage in Athens, Greece, in 1997 is reported. VP1 sequencing of this isolate revealed 1.87% divergence from the VP1 region of reference strain Sabin 1, while further genomic characterization of isolate 7/b/97 revealed a recombination event in the nonstructural part of the genome between a vaccine strain and a nonvaccine strain probably belonging to Enterovirus species C. Amino acid substitutions commonly found in previous studies were identified in the capsid coding region of the isolate, while most of the attenuation and temperature sensitivity determinants were reverted. The ultimate source of isolate 7/b/97 is unknown. The recovery of such a highly divergent derivative of a vaccine strain emphasizes the need for urgent implementation of environmental surveillance as a supportive procedure in the polio surveillance system even in countries with high rates of OPV coverage in order to prevent cases or even outbreaks of poliomyelitis that otherwise would be inevitable.