Researchers at the Mount Sinai Medical Center have developed an innovative system to test how a virus interacts with cells in the body to see, for example, what happens in lung cells when a deadly respiratory virus attacks them.
In the journal Cell Host & Microbe, investigators say such a technique will not only speed basic research into viral biology, it will also help scientists improve vaccine production, generate novel antiviral compounds, and advance the development of viruses that attack cancer cells.
We have a powerful system in place today to investigate ways in which viruses interact with cells, which has yielded fundamental insights. But has significant limitations such as cost, difficulty of use, and the problem that the cells we have to use are not in any way physiologically relevant to the virus we want to study, says the senior investigator, Benjamin tenOever, PhD, the Fishberg Professor in the Department of Medicine and Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The new system that we developed is much less costly, can be transferrable from the study of one virus to another, and, best of all, allows us to use the real virus in the real environment it infects, tenOever says.
Both the old and new systems essentially do the same thingthey test the effect of the virus on every one of the host factors in a cell. Given that genomes encode about 25,000 different genes, each of which produces a different protein or molecule, researchers test what happens to viral growth and replication when each of those 25,000 factors are silenced.
By systematically silencing every one of those host cell factors, we can theoretically pinpoint a single protein that allows a virus to grow quickly, or another one that stops viral infection, Dr. tenOever says.
The technique in use today employs small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules to silence the expression of genes in the host cell a robotic arm introduces a distinctive siRNA to small populations of human or animal cells.
But the system requires cells that are easy to grow as a substitute for natural cells. Immortal cancer cells or fibroblasts (connective cells) are often used, which are not relevant in any way to the cells that most viruses attack. In order to study viruses this way, researchers have to modify them so that they can grow in these cells. This doesnt represent an accurate disease model, tenOever says. If you want to know how flu viruses cause disease, you really want to look in the lungs or lung tissue of mammals which has not been possible in this kind of screen.
To make that possible, the researchers gave viruses the capacity to make those siRNAs eliminating the need for robots to administer individual siRNAs to individual host cells.
We created a virus family identical in all respects, except that each member of the family carries a different siRNA, tenOever says. So in this swarm of viral soldiers, each one has a very small trick up its sleeveit can silence one thing in the host cell. And because of this, we can use the cells that viruses actually infectsuch as lung cells.
The researchers modified an alphavirus a class of viruses that includes a microbe that produces encephalitisso that 10,000 family members each carried a distinct siRNA which acts as a barcode of sorts. Then they allowed the virus to infect mice by mimicking the natural route of infection, such as a mosquito bite, and let nature do its work, tenOever says. We let evolution select for those viruses whose individual capacity to eliminate one thing gives them the growth advantage to outgrow their brothers and sisters.
A week after the modified virus infection, researchers were able to see which virus grew faster than others, and could read the barcode that indicated which gene was silenced. They could also pinpoint the viruses that quickly died in cells. Such findings not only help researchers understand how the virus operates within the cell it infects, but also reveal excellent host targets for which to design antiviral drugs.
Once the virus family is generated for study, it can be amplified, so there is no need to re-engineer the virus library again, he added.
This screening system will likely have many clinical care applications, tenOever says. It could be used to generate cell cultures that allow enhanced vaccine production. You could improve the capacity of a therapeutic virus to get into a particular tissue, to kill tumor cells, or to chase after metastatic cancer cells, he said. There is potentially no end to uses of this technology.
The research was supported in part by the US Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Office under grant numbers W911NF-12-R-0012 and W911NF-08-1-0413. Researchers from Columbia University also contributed to the study.
Source: Mount Sinai Medical Center
Â
I Was There: An Infection Preventionist on the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 30th 2025Deep feelings run strong about the COVID-19 pandemic, and some beautiful art has come out of those emotions. Infection Control Today is proud to share this poem by Carmen Duke, MPH, CIC, in response to a recent article by Heather Stoltzfus, MPH, RN, CIC.
From the Derby to the Decontam Room: Leadership Lessons for Sterile Processing
April 27th 2025Elizabeth (Betty) Casey, MSN, RN, CNOR, CRCST, CHL, is the SVP of Operations and Chief Nursing Officer at Surgical Solutions in Overland, Kansas. This SPD leader reframes preparation, unpredictability, and teamwork by comparing surgical services to the Kentucky Derby to reenergize sterile processing professionals and inspire systemic change.
Show, Tell, Teach: Elevating EVS Training Through Cognitive Science and Performance Coaching
April 25th 2025Training EVS workers for hygiene excellence demands more than manuals—it requires active engagement, motor skills coaching, and teach-back techniques to reduce HAIs and improve patient outcomes.
I Was There: An Infection Preventionist on the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 30th 2025Deep feelings run strong about the COVID-19 pandemic, and some beautiful art has come out of those emotions. Infection Control Today is proud to share this poem by Carmen Duke, MPH, CIC, in response to a recent article by Heather Stoltzfus, MPH, RN, CIC.
From the Derby to the Decontam Room: Leadership Lessons for Sterile Processing
April 27th 2025Elizabeth (Betty) Casey, MSN, RN, CNOR, CRCST, CHL, is the SVP of Operations and Chief Nursing Officer at Surgical Solutions in Overland, Kansas. This SPD leader reframes preparation, unpredictability, and teamwork by comparing surgical services to the Kentucky Derby to reenergize sterile processing professionals and inspire systemic change.
Show, Tell, Teach: Elevating EVS Training Through Cognitive Science and Performance Coaching
April 25th 2025Training EVS workers for hygiene excellence demands more than manuals—it requires active engagement, motor skills coaching, and teach-back techniques to reduce HAIs and improve patient outcomes.
2 Commerce Drive
Cranbury, NJ 08512