Influenza researchers have long focused most of their efforts on the epithelial cells lining the lungs because these are the cells that become infected and killed while producing new copies of the virus.
But other cells lining the upper airways are exposed to viruses in the same amounts and somehow aren't as likely to be killed by infection. Is it because of something the virus does, or something those cells do?
"So you're standing on the bus, somebody sneezes, and you breathe something in," said the senior author. "But where does that virus go? It's certainly not somehow sneaking all the way down to the bottom of your lungs before it encounters a cell. It's hitting somewhere in your nose."
In a paper appearing in Cell Reports, the team reports on the remarkably robust immune response of olfactory sensory neurons, the smell receptors that line the nose, where a virus might first be encountered. Their finding reveals not only a successful strategy against infection, it points out the diversity of immune responses from one kind of cell to another, the author said.
Of all the cells in the nose, olfactory neurons pose a unique danger because they form a direct connection from the airway to the nervous system. Any virus gaining control of that cell potentially has a ticket to the brain and central nervous system. Infections of the brain and nervous system do happen in influenza, but they are usually associated with "bird" flu strains.
A few years ago, the group published a paper that said some cells become infected by influenza and don't die. "There's this whole group of cells that get infected but do something different," the authorsaid. "So we felt like we should be studying those cells."
The team wanted to focus on the body's first contact with the virus in the sinuses and upper respiratory tract to see if there were differences in immune responses from one cell to another. They found that the olfactory cells did become infected, but were able to fight off the virus and avoid being destroyed by it.
Key to the findings were the ability sort cells by type and then perform RNA sequencing that shows which genes are active in a given cell type. This allowed them to see that the olfactory cells were activating a known set of genes to respond to the invader, but turning them up much higher (or much faster, they aren't sure) than other cell types do. "They upregulate genes that shut down viral replication," said the grad student. This is the same set of antiviral genes used by the epithelial cells, "but the higher level to which they are induced was striking," the author said. "It's surprising, because most of these genes were discovered and best described in the respiratory cells."
"Olfactory neurons have the ability to fight this virus off a little better than other cells," the senior author said. "We think that might be a brain protective mechanism."
Heaton said it would be fair to ask why all cells don't respond to influenza this way, but there is probably some tradeoff that isn't obvious yet. For example, a robust immune response that interfered with air exchange wouldn't be a winning strategy.
The senior author said his future work will continue to explore the immune response differences between cells. "You're a person who's been exposed to all kinds of stuff, you have your own particular exposure history that gives you different antibodies, different cell memory phenotypes, probably also different epithelial phenotypes, and we'd like to know what that means in terms of how you respond to secondary infections or these types of things."
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(20)31092-5
http://sciencemission.com/site/index.php?page=news&type=view&id=publications%2Fmisfiring-brain-cells&filter=22
Why olfactory neurons in the upper respiratory tract are resistant to influenza?
- 1,506 views
- Added
Edited
Latest News
Abusive drugs hijack natura…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
Mechanism of action of the…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
Role of fat in rare neurolo…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
How protein synthesis in de…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Apr
Atlas of mRNA variants in d…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Apr
Other Top Stories
Novel mechanism to inactivate kinases
Read more
Osteocyte transcriptome reveals genes that control the skeleton
Read more
A new lysine-cysteine redox switch with an NOS bridge regulates enz…
Read more
How dendritic spines change size during learning and memory
Read more
Amyloid beta generation at the mitochondria-associated endoplasmic…
Read more
Protocols
A programmable targeted pro…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
MemPrep, a new technology f…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Apr
A tangible method to assess…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Apr
Stem cell-derived vessels-o…
By newseditor
Posted 06 Apr
Single-cell biclustering fo…
By newseditor
Posted 01 Apr
Publications
Exploiting pancreatic cance…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
Structure of antiviral drug…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
Type-I-interferon-responsiv…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
Selenium, diabetes, and the…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
Long-term neuropsychologica…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Apr
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar