Project description:Influenza virus transmission between mothers and nursing-infants has not been investigated although mothers and infants often develop severe disease. Ferrets are considered the most appropriate model for influenza studies. We investigated influenza transmission in infant and nursing-mother ferrets. Influenza infected infants transmitted virus to mother mammary glands leading to live virus excretion in milk and influenza virus positive mammary gland epithelial cells. Global gene expression analysis showed down-regulation of milk production and induction of breast involution and oncogenesis pathways. Our results provide insight into influenza transmission between mothers and infants which may impact fields of infectious disease, maternal/infant health and neoplasm etiology.
Project description:Influenza virus transmission between mothers and nursing-infants has not been investigated although mothers and infants often develop severe disease. Ferrets are considered the most appropriate model for influenza studies. We investigated influenza transmission in infant and nursing-mother ferrets. Influenza infected infants transmitted virus to mother mammary glands leading to live virus excretion in milk and influenza virus positive mammary gland epithelial cells. Global gene expression analysis showed down-regulation of milk production and induction of breast involution and oncogenesis pathways. Our results provide insight into influenza transmission between mothers and infants which may impact fields of infectious disease, maternal/infant health and neoplasm etiology.
Project description:Influenza A viruses generate annual epidemics and occasional pandemics of respiratory disease with important consequences for human health and economy. Therefore, a large effort has been devoted to the development of new anti-influenza drugs directed to viral targets, as well as to the identification of cellular targets amenable for anti-influenza therapy. Here we describe a new approach to identify such potential cellular targets by screening collections of drugs approved for human use. We reasoned that this would most probably ensure addressing a cellular target and, if successful, the compound would have a well known pharmacological profile. In addition, we reasoned that a screening using a GFP-based recombinant replicon system would address virus trancription/replication and/or gene expression, and hence address a stage in virus infection more useful for inhibition. By using such strategy we identified Montelukast as an inhibitor of virus gene expression, which reduced virus multiplication in virus-infected cells but did not alter virus RNA synthesis in vitro or viral RNA accumulation in vivo. By deep sequencing of RNA isolated from mock- and virus-infected human cells, treated or not with Montelukast, we identified the PERK-mediated unfolded protein response as the pathway responsible for Montelukast action. Accordingly, PERK phosphorylation was inhibited in infected cells but stimulated in Montelukast-treated cells. These results suggest the PERK-mediated unfolded protein response as a potential cellular target to modulate influenza virus infection.
Project description:Genome-wide gene expression patterns were measured in human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) infected in vitro with seasonal H1N1 influenza A/New Caledonia/20/1999. To provide a mechanistic explanation for the timing of gene expression changes over the first 12 hours post-infection, we developed a statistically rigorous enrichment approach integrating genome-wide expression kinetics and time-dependent promoter analysis. Our approach, TI me-Dependent Activity Linker (TIDAL), generates a regulatory network that connects transcription factors associated with each temporal phase of the response into a coherent linked cascade. TIDAL infers 12 transcription factors and 32 regulatory connections that drive the antiviral response to influenza. To demonstrate the generality of this approach, TIDAL was also used to generate a network for the DC response to measles infection. Monocyte-derived DCs were obtained from healthy human blood donors following a standard protocol. The recent seasonal H1N1 influenza virus A/New Caledonia/20/1999 (NC) virus was titrated by immunofluorescence 18 hours after infection of MDCK cell plates using monoclonal antibodies specific for Influenza-NP protein generated by the Mount Sinai Hybridoma Core Facility followed by addition of anti-mouse IgG-FITC and visualization using fluorescent microscopy. For infection of naive DCs, NC stocks were appropriately diluted in DulbeccoM-bM-^@M-^Ys Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) and added directly into pelleted DCs at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 1 After incubation for 40 minutes at 37 M-bM-^WM-&C, fresh DC growth medium (without GMCSF and IL-4) was added back to the infected cells (1 106 cells/ml) for the remainder of the infection. The reaction was stopped at 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 hours after infection by fixing the cells with RNAprotect Cell Reagent (Qiagen, Duesseldorf Germany). Naive non-infected DCs underwent the same experimental procedure as infected DCs in the absence of virus to ensure that mechanical manipulations could not be responsible for differences in experimental readouts. All time points and controls were performed in triplicates. Cells were homogenized by using QIAshredder microcentrifuge spin-columns (Qiagen, Duesseldorf Germany) and RNA was isolated from cells using Qiagen Micro RNeasy plus kit following the manufactures protocol (Qiagen, Duesseldorf Germany). RNA quality was assayed by determination of the RNA integrity number using the 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent). RNA samples were processed and hybridized to HumanHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChip Kit (Illumina San Diego, CA) by the Mount Sinai Genomics Institute following the manufacturerM-bM-^@M-^Ys instructions, and raw expression data were output by the Illumina GenomeStudio software.
Project description:Influenza virus transmission between mothers and nursing-infants has not been investigated although mothers and infants often develop severe disease. Ferrets are considered the most appropriate model for influenza studies. We investigated influenza transmission in infant and nursing-mother ferrets. Influenza infected infants transmitted virus to mother mammary glands leading to live virus excretion in milk and influenza virus positive mammary gland epithelial cells. Global gene expression analysis showed down-regulation of milk production and induction of breast involution and oncogenesis pathways. Our results provide insight into influenza transmission between mothers and infants which may impact fields of infectious disease, maternal/infant health and neoplasm etiology. Total RNA was obtained from nursing mother ferret mammary glands at days 3/4 and 6/7 post-intranasal kit infection with 10^5 EID50 A/California/07/2009 (H1N1). Total RNA was also collected from uninfected control nursing mother mammary gland tissues (n = 3). Changes in gene expression relative to uninfected tissue controls were then investigated.
Project description:Influenza virus transmission between mothers and nursing-infants has not been investigated although mothers and infants often develop severe disease. Ferrets are considered the most appropriate model for influenza studies. We investigated influenza transmission in infant and nursing-mother ferrets. Influenza infected infants transmitted virus to mother mammary glands leading to live virus excretion in milk and influenza virus positive mammary gland epithelial cells. Global gene expression analysis showed down-regulation of milk production and induction of breast involution and oncogenesis pathways. Our results provide insight into influenza transmission between mothers and infants which may impact fields of infectious disease, maternal/infant health and neoplasm etiology. Total RNA was obtained from ferret lungs at days 3 and 6 post-intranasal infection with 10^5 EID50 A/California/07/2009 (H1N1) (n = 3/time-point). Total RNA was also collected from uninfected control lung tissues (n = 3). Changes in gene expression relative to uninfected tissue controls were then investigated.
Project description:Interventions: The influenza virus vaccine is given in the period October/November 2011.
Primary outcome(s): Adequate rise in antibody titre.
Study Design: Randomized controlled trial, Open (masking not used), Active, Parallel