Molecular Developmental Physiology and Signal Transduction Research Group, Animal Physiology and Neurobiology Division, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59 Box 2465, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Ghent University, Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Viruses. 2023 May 17;15(5):1183. doi: 10.3390/v15051183.
Insect cell expression systems are increasingly being used in the medical industry to develop vaccines against diseases such as COVID-19. However, viral infections are common in these systems, making it necessary to thoroughly characterize the viruses present. One such virus is (BmLV), which is known to be specific to and to have low pathogenicity. However, there has been little research on the tropism and virulence of BmLV. In this study, we examined the genomic diversity of BmLV and identified a variant that persistently infects -derived High Five cells. We also assessed the pathogenicity of this variant and its effects on host responses using both in vivo and in vitro systems. Our results showed that this BmLV variant causes acute infections with strong cytopathic effects in both systems. Furthermore, we characterized the RNAi-based immune response in the cell line and in animals by assessing the regulation of RNAi-related genes and profiling the generated viral small RNAs. Overall, our findings shed light on the prevalence and infectious properties of BmLV. We also discuss the potential impact of virus genomic diversity on experimental outcomes, which can help interpret past and future research results.
昆虫细胞表达系统越来越多地被用于医学领域，以开发针对 COVID-19 等疾病的疫苗。然而，这些系统中经常会发生病毒感染，因此需要彻底分析存在的病毒。其中一种病毒是（BmLV），它已知是特异性的，且致病性较低。然而，关于 BmLV 的嗜性和毒力的研究很少。在这项研究中，我们研究了 BmLV 的基因组多样性，并鉴定出一种持续感染 -衍生的 High Five 细胞的变体。我们还使用体内和体外系统评估了这种变体的致病性及其对宿主反应的影响。我们的结果表明，这种 BmLV 变体在两种系统中均引起强烈细胞病变效应的急性感染。此外，我们通过评估 RNAi 相关基因的调控和分析生成的病毒小 RNA，来表征 细胞系和 动物中的 RNAi 基于免疫反应。总体而言，我们的研究结果揭示了 BmLV 的流行情况和感染特性。我们还讨论了病毒基因组多样性对实验结果的潜在影响，这有助于解释过去和未来的研究结果。
