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Viral Biofilms - Discovery of a New Propagation Mechanism for Some Viruses

http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/61853.htm

Bacterial biofilms have been known for a while. They form the dental plaque on teeth. They can also be found in industrial facilities and intestinal flora. When they colonize medical implants, such as prostheses or catheters, the biofilms may cause recurrent infections. Accordingly, they have been the focus of extensive research to limit their growth and make them permeable to antibacterial treatment. For the first time ever, French researchers have shown that certain viruses are capable of forming complex biofilm-like assembles, similar to bacterial biofilms. These 'viral biofilms' would appear to be a major propagation mechanism for certain viruses.

For the first time in viral research, scientists at the Pasteur Institute and CNRS headed by Maria-Isabel Thoulouze and Andrés Alcover at the Lymphocyte Cell Biology Unit working with Antoine Gessain at the Oncogenic Virus Epidemiology and Physiopathology Unit and with Imagopole, the Pasteur Institute's Ultrastructural Microscopy platform, have just identified biofilm-like structures formed by the HTLV-1 retrovirus on the surface of infected cells. These are aggregates of viruses and of a sugar-rich extracellular matrix secreted by the cell and whose synthesis is controlled by the virus genome, integrated into the cellular genome.

HTLV-1 was the first human retrovirus to be isolated in 1980, three years before the discovery of HIV, the retrovirus to blame for Aids. HTVL-1, which infects 15 to 20 million people worldwide, is the cause of various pathologies ranging from leukemia/T-cell lymphoma in adults to types of neuromyopathy or other chronic inflammatory syndromes, such as infectious dermatitis, uveitis or myositis. Of course, researchers already knew that the transmission of the virus into the organism of the infected host was only through cell-to-cell contact. However, the mechanism was still unexplained. Within the viral biofilm, which acts as a protective adhesive coat, the HTLV-1 retrovirus is transmitted more efficiently that if it were alone or in a free state. However, the researchers managed to reduced the infection rate by 80% by eliminating the biofilm from the surface of the infected cells.

The researchers are continuing their work to characterize the production mechanisms of the viral biofilms. They also want to discover if viruses other than HTLV-1 are able to form such structures. When dealing with such viruses, it could be very productive to redefine antiviral therapeutic strategies that would not only target the virus itself, but the formation of the viral biofilms.

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Pasteur Institute- Marie Isabelle Thoulouze - email: marie-isabelle.thoulouze@pasteur.fr

Code brève
ADIT : 61853

ADIT - Jean-François Desessard - Email: jfd@adit.fr

eTech France numéro 236 (13/01/2010) - ADIT / ADIT - http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/61853.htm