The Effects of Coinfection of ZIKV, DENV, and CHIKV with dual host insect specific flaviviruses (dISFs)
E. Ashley Thompson1, Dr. Fengwei Bai Ph.D.1
1Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS
It has been shown recently that insect specific flaviviruses (ISFs) have inhibitory and inductory activities in the presence of other arboviruses such as West Nile Virus (WNV), Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV), Zika Virus (ZIKV), and Dengue Virus (DENV). ISFs replicate in the mosquito but either do not replicate in mammalian hosts, called classical ISFs (cISFs), or can replicate in mammals but do not cause disease, called dual host ISFs (dISFs). It is theorized that dISFs either interfere or enhance virial replication of secondary infects of arboviruses depending on the secondary virus in question. In this project, mosquito larval cells (C6/36) were infected with the following dISFs: La Tina Virus (LTNV), Kampung Karu Virus (KPKV), and Long Pine Key Virus (LPKV). After three days of infection, either DENV, ZIKV, or CHIKV were then coinfected into the C6/36 cells and allowed to grow until cytopathic effect (CPE) was observed. The cells were then collected in Trizol for qRT-PCR, and the supernatant was collected for later secondary infection. The presence of the coinfected virus was measured and calibrated against mosquito beta actin. Hopefully, this research will lead to a better understanding of how coinfection affects the ability of severe public health viruses such as ZIKV, DENV, and CHIKV to replicate inside the mammalian host, as well as possibly provide a platform for future vaccine research.