The researchers believe the findings could help explain why co-infections can lead to significantly worse disease for some patients, including hard-to-treat viral pneumonia.
Approximately 5 million people worldwide are hospitalized each year due to influenza A, while respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections in children under the age of five. and can cause serious illness in some children and the elderly.
“Respiratory viruses exist as part of a community made up of different viruses that target the same region of the body, like an ecological niche”said Dr Joanne Haney of the Center for Virus Research at MRC-University of Glasgow, who led the study. “We need to understand how these infections occur in the context of each other to get a more complete picture of the biology of each individual virus.”
To investigate, Haney and his colleagues deliberately infected human lung cells with both viruses and found that instead of competing with each other, as is known for other viruses, they fused to form a palm-shaped hybrid virus, with the RSV which forms the trunk and affects the leaves.
“This type of hybrid virus has never been described before”, said Professor Pablo Murcia, who oversaw the research, published in Nature Microbiology. “We are talking about viruses from two completely different families that combine together with the genomes and external proteins of both viruses. It’s a new type of pathogenic virus. “
Once formed, the hybrid virus was also able to infect neighboring cells, even in the presence of flu antibodies that would normally block the infection. Although the antibodies still attached to the influenza proteins on the surface of the hybrid virus, the virus simply used nearby RSV proteins to infect lung cells instead. Murcia said: “The flu uses hybrid viral particles like a Trojan horse. “
In addition to helping viruses evade the immune system, joining forces can also allow them to access a wider range of lung cells. While influenza usually infects cells in the nose, throat, and trachea, RSV tends to prefer cells in the trachea and lungs, although there is some overlap.
This could increase the chances of the flu triggering a serious and sometimes fatal lung infection called viral pneumonia, said Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds. Although he warned that more research is needed to show that hybrid viruses are involved in human disease. “RSV tends to decrease in the lungs compared to seasonal influenza virus, and the more likely you are to have a more severe disease the lower the infection will be. “, He said. “It is another reason to avoid infection with multiple viruses, because this [hibridizarea] it’s even more likely to happen if we don’t take precautions to protect our health. “
Significantly, the team showed that hybrid viruses can infect cultured cell layers and individual respiratory cells. “This is important because the cells are genuinely attached to each other and the virus particles will need to get in and out the right way.declared the Griffin.
The next step is to confirm whether hybrid viruses can form in co-infected patients and, if so, what they are. “We need to know if this only happens with the flu and RSV or if it extends to other combinations of virusesMurcia said. “My opinion is that this is what happens. And, I suppose it extends to [virusurile] animals. This is just the beginning of what I think will be a long journey with hopefully very interesting discoveries. “
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