Parechovirus infection in human brain organoids: host innate inflammatory response and not neuro-infectivity correlates to neurologic disease

Pamela E. Capendale, Inés García-Rodríguez, Anoop T. Ambikan, Lance A. Mulder, Josse A. Depla, Eline Freeze, Gerrit Koen, Carlemi Calitz, Vikas Sood, Renata Vieira de Sá, Ujjwal Neogi, Dasja Pajkrt, Adithya Sridhar, Katja C. Wolthers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Picornaviruses are a leading cause of central nervous system (CNS) infections. While genotypes such as parechovirus A3 (PeV-A3) and echovirus 11 (E11) can elicit severe neurological disease, the highly prevalent PeV-A1 is not associated with CNS disease. Here, we expand our current understanding of these differences in PeV-A CNS disease using human brain organoids and clinical isolates of the two PeV-A genotypes. Our data indicate that PeV-A1 and A3 specific differences in neurological disease are not due to infectivity of CNS cells as both viruses productively infect brain organoids with a similar cell tropism. Proteomic analysis shows that PeV-A infection significantly alters the host cell metabolism. The inflammatory response following PeV-A3 (and E11 infection) is significantly more potent than that upon PeV-A1 infection. Collectively, our findings align with clinical observations and suggest a role for neuroinflammation, rather than viral replication, in PeV-A3 (and E11) infection.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2532
JournalNature communications
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2024

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