MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210095, PR China.
MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210095, PR China.
Vet Microbiol. 2021 Jun;257:109081. doi: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2021.109081. Epub 2021 Apr 20.
As the most abundant cell type in the blood, red blood cells (RBCs) are serving for transporting oxygen. However, the mechanism by which RBCs binding virus remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrated that porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a kind of coronavirus, could hijack RBCs and cause typical diarrhea in neonatal piglets. In an epidemiology investigation of PEDV, the RBCs samples from diarrheic pigs in several pig farms were found to be PEDV-positive. PEDV could bind to neonatal RBCs through CD71 and clathrin-mediated endocytosis, and its viability was maintained for 12 h. PEDV-loaded RBCs could transfer the virus to CD3 T cells by conjugation and reach the intestine mucosa, where it caused infection. Finally, a further animal challenge revealed that transfusing with PEDV-loaded RBCs could cause intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) infection and typical diarrhea symptom. Therefore, our studies illustrated the mechanism by which PEDV could cause intestinal infection through hijacking RBCs, further providing a novel insight into the role of RBCs as potential cells for viral transmission in coronavirus pathogenesis.
作为血液中最丰富的细胞类型，红细胞（RBC）负责运输氧气。然而，红细胞结合病毒的机制在很大程度上仍然未知。在这里，我们证明了猪流行性腹泻病毒（PEDV），一种冠状病毒，可以劫持红细胞并导致新生仔猪出现典型腹泻。在对 PEDV 的流行病学调查中，从几个猪场的腹泻猪中采集的 RBC 样本被发现呈 PEDV 阳性。PEDV 可以通过 CD71 和网格蛋白介导的内吞作用与新生 RBC 结合，其活力可维持 12 小时。载有 PEDV 的 RBC 可以通过共轭将病毒转移到 CD3 T 细胞，并到达肠黏膜，在那里引起感染。最后，进一步的动物挑战表明，输注 PEDV 负载的 RBC 可导致肠上皮细胞（IEC）感染和典型腹泻症状。因此，我们的研究阐明了 PEDV 通过劫持 RBC 引起肠道感染的机制，进一步深入了解了 RBC 作为冠状病毒发病机制中病毒传播的潜在细胞的作用。
