Cutthroat Trout Virus-Towards a Virus Model to Support Hepatitis E Research

von Nordheim, Marcus; Boinay, Michel Thomas; Leisi, Remo; Kempf, Christoph; Ros, Carlos (2016). Cutthroat Trout Virus-Towards a Virus Model to Support Hepatitis E Research. Viruses, 8(10), p. 289. MDPI 10.3390/v8100289

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Cutthroat trout virus (CTV) is a non-pathogenic fish virus belonging to the Hepeviridae family, and it is distantly related to hepatitis E virus (HEV). Here, we report the development of an efficient cell culture system where CTV can consistently replicate to titers never observed before with a hepevirus. By using the rainbow trout gill (RTGill-W1) cell line, CTV reaches 1010 geq/mL intracellularly and 10⁸ geq/mL extracellularly within 5-6 days in culture. We additionally established a qPCR system to investigate CTV infectivity, and developed a specific antibody directed against the viral capsid protein encoded by ORF2. With these methods, we were able to follow the progressive accumulation of viral RNA and the capsid protein, and their intracellular distribution during virus replication. Virus progeny purified through iodixanol density gradients indicated-that similar to HEV-CTV produced in cell culture is also lipid-associated. The lack of an efficient cell culture system has greatly impeded studies with HEV, a major human pathogen that causes hepatitis worldwide. Although several cell culture systems have recently been established, the replication efficiency of HEV is not robust enough to allow studies on different aspects of the virus replication cycle. Therefore, a surrogate virus that can replicate easily and efficiently in cultured cells would be helpful to boost research studies with hepeviruses. Due to its similarities, but also its key differences to HEV, CTV represents a promising tool to elucidate aspects of the replication cycle of Hepeviridae in general, and HEV in particular.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences (DCBP)

UniBE Contributor:

von Nordheim, Marcus, Boinay, Michel Thomas, Leisi, Gian Remo, Kempf, Christoph (B), Ros Bascunana, Carlos

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
500 Science > 540 Chemistry

ISSN:

1999-4915

Publisher:

MDPI

Language:

English

Submitter:

Christoph Kempf

Date Deposited:

19 Jan 2017 16:38

Last Modified:

15 Oct 2024 11:26

Publisher DOI:

10.3390/v8100289

PubMed ID:

27775612

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.91752

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/91752

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