During a laboratory experiment, researchers observed the formation of a new hybrid virus, born from the fusion between the influenza A virus and the respiratory syncytial virus, responsible for bronchiolitis.
The influenza A virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) responsible for bronchiolitis in infants and seasonal colds in adults, are able to fuse and create an entirely new pathogen, researchers at the University of Glasgow said.
It was during a laboratory experiment designed to analyze the interactions between viruses during winter infections that Professor Pablo Murcia’s team discovered that when the two viruses join forces, a new hybrid virus is created, the filaments of which contain the trace. of the two viral particles.
A virus that can ignore antibodies
‘This type of hybrid virus has never been described before,’ said Professor Murcia. to the Guardian . “We are talking about viruses from two completely different families that combine with the genomes and external proteins of the two viruses. It is a new type of pathogenic virus. Once formed, the hybrid virus is able to infect neighboring cells, even in the presence of influenza antibodies that usually block the infection. While the antibodies do their job by attaching to the flu proteins on the surface of the hybrid virus, this same virus uses the syncytial virus proteins as a “Trojan horse” to infect lung cells instead.
In addition to being able to evade the immune system, this new hybrid virus would be able to access a wider range of lung cells. Because while the flu typically infects cells in the nose, throat, and trachea, RSV tends to travel further down the lungs, causing a more serious infection.
So far the fusion of the two viruses has only been observed under the microscope in the laboratory, “which cannot fully grasp the spatial and physiological complexity of the entire respiratory tract”. Researchers will now try to confirm whether hybrid viruses can form in patients co-infected with influenza and RSV and whether this co-infection can extend to other virus combinations, ‘said Prof Murcia.
Source : Co-infection with influenza A virus and respiratory syncytial virus produces hybrid virus particlesMicrobiology of Nature, October 2022
