DRmov · Deciphering the RBPome in mosquitoes during virus infection
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-01-01 → 2021-12-31
- EU contribution
- €224,934
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Deciphering the RBPome in mosquitoes during virus infection
Humans have been in contact with emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases since hundreds of years, however recent indications suggest that the frequency and severity of such diseases are rapidly increasing. Considering that two third of such illness are caused by RNA viruses, such as dengue fever (DENV), severe pneumonia (SARS-Cov-2), and polyarthritis (CHIKV), investigating this group of pathogens is vital to predict and manage the severity of any incoming emerging viruses. Considering that the genetic material for these pathogenic viruses is RNA with limited coding capacity, host RNA binding proteins are hijacked to facilitate different viral processes including viral RNA transcription, translation and virions assembly. Here we focus on mosquito-borne diseases, which has expanded dramatically in the last few decades to become an emerging global health problem, with around 1 billion new infections and 1 million deaths each year. I propose a workflow composed of number of unbiased, cutting edge, high-throughput techniques with three main objectives 1) determining the RBPome of mosquito cells 2) identification of the complement of mosquito RBPs involved in virus infection 3) role of selected mosquito RBPs in viral infection. Moreover, the overall objective of the proposed work is to create a workflow not relying on prior detailed knowledge about host-virus interactions, consequently it offers to be an unprecedented unbiased approach that is well-suited for investigating emerging virus infections
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The impact of mosquito-borne diseases has expanded dramatically in the last few decades to become an emerging global health problem, with around 1 billion new infections and 1 million deaths each year. In Europe there are more than 20 countries with established populations of invasive Aedes mosquitoes. Aedes mosquitoes are the principle vectors responsible for transmitting high-risk pathogens such as ZIKA virus (ZIKV), dengue (DENV), yellow fever virus (YFV), chikungunya virus (CHKV) and Venezuelan equine encephalitic virus (VEEV). Despite our vulnerabilities to mosquito-borne diseases, virus replication dynamics is still poorly understood especially in the invertebrate vectors. No treatment against these viruses targeting essential viral proteins are currently available. Thus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its Vector Control Advisory Group has urged for insect vector control. Vector control is usually performed through insecticides; however, resistance can emerge in mosquitoes leading to persistence of the disease. Therefore, virologists are turning their interests toward host factors that play essential roles in infection as novel antiviral targets, since they can potentially exhibit broad-spectrum efficacy. In particular, scientists envision that genetically modified mosquitoes with disrupted genes required for infection can be re-inserted into natural habitats or through targeting these genes by RNAi in order to control viral spread. As all mosquito-borne viruses have RNA genome, cellular RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) emerge as ideal targets for antiviral therapies, as they are key players in cellular and viral RNA metabolism . Thus, we propose here to profile comprehensively the compendium of mosquito RBPs (RBPome) using RNA-interactome capture (RNA-IC). Furthermore, we will apply different cutting-edge methods to identify the role of mosquito RBPs during virus infection.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW · GlasgowCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
- THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · OxfordUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union