Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HONOURs (Host switching pathogens, infectious outbreaks and zoonosis; a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Training Network)
Teaser
\"Summary:The increase of the human population is accompanied by growing numbers of livestock to feed this population, as well as by an increase of human invasion into natural habitats of wild animals. As a result, both animals and humans are becoming progressively vulnerable...
Summary
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Summary:
The increase of the human population is accompanied by growing numbers of livestock to feed this population, as well as by an increase of human invasion into natural habitats of wild animals. As a result, both animals and humans are becoming progressively vulnerable to infections with known (zoonotic) pathogens, but are also increasingly exposed to novel viruses. Global trade as well as climate changes can contribute to pathogen transmission, e.g. through import of infected vectors or expansion of habitats for arthropod vectors such as mosquitoes and midges. Infectious disease outbreaks, especially those by novel viruses, are generally unexpected, and therefore we should be prepared with tools and abilities for immediate action, including the identification of the causative agent, the evaluation of its pathogenic potential for animals and humans, and the fast development of diagnostic assays to allow contact tracing and quarantine measures. HONOURs is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network (MSCA-ITN), teaching 15 talented young researchers to become \"\"preparedness-experts\"\". HONOURs, initiated in April 2017, involves 11 laboratories from 6 different European countries, all at the forefront of novel virus investigations and characterizations. The network includes surveillance experts in both the veterinary and the human health sector, who have developed and utilize highly sensitive virus discovery techniques, e.g. next generation sequencing based genomics and universal primers based PCR, to allow identification and characterization of novel viruses. Production of pure viral proteins, providing high-resolution structures, aids in the design of novel, fast and easy-to-use diagnostics. Organotypic in vitro cell cultures systems (e.g. pseudostratified human airway epithelia) provide tools for virus replication, if needed via a reverse genetics platform, and the production of virus stocks permits inoculation in animal models to examine disease, evaluate candidate vaccines, and fulfilment of the Koch\'s postulates. Scientists of the various institutes will provide training in the HONOURs network through specialized courses and workshops, combined with challenging research projects. The final aim of the network is to deliver 15 expert scientists, ready to act in case of the emergence of an epidemic.
doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2018.09.002
YouTube: https://youtu.be/njb88XNVtT4
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Work performed
Overall objectives of the project:
Infectious diseases have always been a massive burden on the wellbeing of humans and animals, far beyond the consequences of war and natural disasters. Infectious outbreaks in animals and humans emerge unexpectedly, caused by known pathogens or by hitherto unknown pathogens. History has shown that the spread of unknown animal viruses is the main source of novel viral infections in livestock and humans. With a novel virus introduction, either in the veterinary or in the human field, it is important to address several essential research questions, e.g. the geographic location of the introduction and the size of the epidemic, the disease association, the mortality and morbidity, the species involved in a transmission chain, and the replication characteristics such as cell- and organ-tropism. Currently there is no comprehensive teaching programme for researchers in this area, therefore the main objective of the HONOURs MSCA-ITN is to train young researchers (Early Stage Researchers: ESRs) on different aspects of emerging viral infections and the threat of zoonotic viruses. The ESRs will follow specialized courses supplied by the senior scientists in HONOURs. Each ESR will also have an individual research topic leading to a thesis defence and the awarding of a PhD degree.
Work performed from the beginning of the project till the end of Month 24:
- Recognizing an introduction: Yearly Outbreak reports have been made.
- Identification of an introduction: Characterizaton done of the genomes of novel viruses identified and described in the Yearly Outbreak reports.
- Fast detection and association with disease: Proteins of novel viruses have been expressed for novel diagnostic assays and high resolution structures.
- Fulfilling Koch’s postulates: Thus far the Koch\'s postulates have not been fulfilled for the novel viruses identified.
- Fifteen experts on host switching pathogens, infectious outbreaks and zoonosis: All ESRs employed, training schedule on track
Final results
Information on novel outbreaks, emerging infections, novel vaccines, diagnostics or therapeutics are of great value. HONOURs website in place; Easy to read summaries have been made (language English); HONOURs visible and linked to the website of the European Virus Bioinformatics Center (EVBC), announced in the EVBC newsletter, and the ESRs of HONOURs have made a YouTube movie to inform the general public on HONOURs. In the first 24 months there are 7 scientific publications:
1) Lia van der Hoek, Ernst Verschoor, Martin Beer, Dirk Höper, Kerstin Wernike, Marc Van Ranst, Jelle Matthijnssens, Piet Maes, Patricia Sastre, Paloma Rueda, Jan Felix Drexler, John Barr, Thomas Edwards, Paul Millner, Paul Vermeij, Ad de Groof, Volker Thiel, Ronald Dijkman, Franziska Suter-Riniker, Stephen Leib, Roger Koller, Alban Ramette, Olivier Engler, Christian Beuret. Host switching pathogens, infectious outbreaks and zoonosis: A Marie Skłodowska-Curie innovative training network (HONOURs). Virus Research 257, (2018) P120–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2018.09.002
2) Volker Thiel. Synthetic viruses: Anything new? PLoS Pathog (2018) 14(10): e1007019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1007019
3) Arthur W D Edridge, Martin Deijs, Ruth Namazzi, Cosimo Cristella, Maarten F Jebbink, Irma Maurer, Neeltje A Kootstra, Linda R Buluma, Job B M van Woensel, Menno D de Jong, Richard Idro, Michael Boele van Hensbroek, Lia van der Hoek. Novel Orthobunyavirus Identified in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of a Ugandan Child With Severe Encephalopathy. Clinical Infectious Diseases (2019), Volume 68, Issue 1, P139–142. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy486
4) Cormac M. Kinsella, Martin Deijs, Lia van der Hoek. Enhanced bioinformatic profiling of VIDISCA libraries for virus detection and discovery. Virus Research (2019). Volume 263, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2018.12.010
5) Joan MartÃ‑Carreras and Piet Maes. Human cytomegalovirus genomics and transcriptomics through the lens of next-generation sequencing: revision and future challenges. Virus Genes (2019) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-018-1627-3
6) J. Fuller, R. A. Surtees, A. B. Shaw, B. Ãlvarez-RodrÃguez, G. S. Slack, Lesley Bell-Sakyi, J. Mankouri, T. A. Edwards, R. Hewson, J. N. Barr. Hazara nairovirus elicits differential induction of apoptosis and nucleocapsid protein cleavage in mammalian and tick cells. J Gen Virology, (2019). Mar;100(3):392-402. doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.001211
7) Arthur W D Edridge; Deijs, M.; van Zeggeren, I.E.; Kinsella, C.M.; Jebbink, M.F.; Bakker, M.; van de Beek, D.; Brouwer, M.C.; van der Hoek, L. Viral Metagenomics on Cerebrospinal Fluid. Genes 2019, 10, 332. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/10/5/332
Website & more info
More info: https://honours.eu/.