A research team from the University of Valencia has succeeded in replicating human norovirus in mice by eliminating intestinal microbiotics with the use of antibiotics, which will allow progress in the development of vaccines that arrest one of the viruses responsible for most cases of gastroenteritis. acute.
The results of the research conducted by this group, led by Professor Jesús Rodríguez Díaz, from the Department of Microbiology and Ecology, were published this week in the “International Journal of Molecular Science”, according to the UV.
Human noroviruses, highly contagious viruses that cause vomiting and diarrhea, are the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis in people of all ages around the world and are the leading foodborne viruses.
According to sources, human noroviruses produce significant economic costs for health systems, are the leading cause of lost work days, and cause the deaths of around 100,000 people per year, mainly in developing countries.
Rodríguez Díaz points out that until now “it has been very difficult both to develop vaccines against the virus and to produce antivirals. Due to the lack of a study model in small laboratory animals, they were unable to replicate in anyone. “
The research he conducts opens a door to the study and development of vaccines. “In our group we were able to replicate the virus in mice by eliminating the gut microbiota with the use of antibiotics,” Rodríguez explains.
The published work allowed the research team, in addition to the knowledge gained on the role of specific members of the microbiota and mediators of the immune response in the norovirus infection process, to have established an immunocompetent model of norovirus replication in laboratory mice.
“This model can now be used by us and other research groups to develop vaccines against human noroviruses (which to date do not exist) and specific antiviral molecules,” according to Rodríguez.
According to sources, the gut microbiota had previously been shown to play an important role in the replication of murine noroviruses, promoting viral replication.
Therefore, “our hypothesis was that if we replaced the mouse gut microbiota with the human isolated gut microbiota, human viruses would be able to replicate in the mouse model,” says the lead researcher.
In order to perform the microbiota transplant in the first place, the team cleared the mouse microbiota using antibiotics and also studied immune response mediators, finding that lower TNF-alpha expression is key for human noroviruses to replicate in the mouse model.
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