VIRUS HYBRIDS FORM FROM TWO DIFFERENT RESPIRATORY PATHOGENS RSV AND IAV. 2022-11-15. Jorma Jyrkkanen

This article is interesting to me because it shows how new pathogen variants emerge from hybridization, ie exchange of genes between pathogens with similar target hosts. Nature Microbiology. Published: 24 October 2022. Coinfection by influenza A virus and respiratory syncytial virus produces hybrid virus particles. Joanne Haney, Swetha Vijayakrishnan, James Streetley, Kieran Dee, Daniel Max Goldfarb, Mairi Clarke, Margaret Mullin, Stephen D. Carter, David Bhella & Pablo R. Murcia. Nature Microbiology volume 7, pages 1879–1890 (2022)Cite this article Abstract Interactions between respiratory viruses during infection affect transmission dynamics and clinical outcomes. To identify and characterize virus–virus interactions at the cellular level, we coinfected human lung cells with influenza A virus (IAV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Super-resolution microscopy, live-cell imaging, scanning electron microscopy and cryo-electron tomography revealed extracellular and membrane-associated filamentous structures consistent with hybrid viral particles (HVPs). We found that HVPs harbour surface glycoproteins and ribonucleoproteins of IAV and RSV. HVPs use the RSV fusion glycoprotein to evade anti-IAV neutralizing antibodies and infect and spread among cells lacking IAV receptors. Finally, we show that IAV and RSV coinfection in primary cells of the bronchial epithelium results in viral proteins from both viruses co-localizing at the apical cell surface. Our observations define a previously unknown interaction between respiratory viruses that might affect virus pathogenesis by expanding virus tropism and enabling immune evasion. This observation suggests pandemics are more likely to arise when several similar viral pathogens are experiencing outbreaks at the same time due to the varieties that are being created de novo. High risk activities should be curtailed when this possibility becomes probable to prevent the expansion of pathogen pandemics. It has been postulated that the AIDS virus is a hybrid produced in this manner fron visna virus and human HTLV-I. Is AIDS Man-Made? The theory that AIDS originated in the laboratory has been circulating in Europe, particularly in West Germany, since late 1986. The theory hinges on the claim that the AIDS virus (HIV) is virtually identical to two other viruses: Visna, which causes a fatal disease in sheep but does not infect humans, and HTLV-I (Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus), which infects humans but is seldom fatal. Prof. Jakob Segal, the author of the theory, says that structural analysis using genome mapping proves that HIV is more similar to Visna than to any other retrovirus. The portion (about three percent) of the HIV genome which does not correspond structurally to Visna corresponds exactly to part of the HTLV-I genome.