[Researchers found the RSV and influenza viruses fused together to
form a new type of virus pathogen]
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IMMUNE SYSTEM-EVADING HYBRID VIRUS OBSERVED FOR FIRST TIME  
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Linda Geddes
October 24, 2022
The Guardian
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_ Researchers found the RSV and influenza viruses fused together to
form a new type of virus pathogen _

As well as helping the viruses evade the immune system, joining
forces may also enable them to access more lung cells. , David
Davies/PA

 

Two common respiratory viruses can fuse to form a hybrid virus capable
of evading the human immune system, and infecting lung cells – the
first time such viral cooperation has ever been observed.

Researchers believe the findings could help to explain why
co-infections can lead to significantly worse disease for some
patients, including hard-to-treat viral pneumonia.

Each year, about 5 million people around the world are hospitalised
with influenza A, while respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the
leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections in children
under five years old, and can cause severe illness in some children
and older adults.

Although co-infections – where a person is infected with both
viruses at the same time – are thought to be relatively common, it
was unclear how these viruses would respond if they found themselves
inside the same cell.

“Respiratory viruses exist as part of a community of many viruses
that all target the same region of the body, like an ecological
niche,” said Dr Joanne Haney from the MRC-University of Glasgow
centre for virus research, who led the study.

“We need to understand how these infections occur within the context
of one another to gain a fuller picture of the biology of each
individual virus.”

To investigate, Haney and her colleagues deliberately infected human
lung cells with both viruses and found that, rather than competing
with one another as some other viruses are known to do, they fused
together to form a palm tree-shaped hybrid virus – with RSV forming
the trunk, and influenza the leaves.

“This kind of hybrid virus has never been described before,” said
Prof Pablo Murcia, who supervised the research, published in Nature
Microbiology [[link removed]].
“We are talking about viruses from two completely different families
combining together with the genomes and the external proteins of both
viruses. It is a new type of virus pathogen.”

Once formed, the hybrid virus was also able to infect neighbouring
cells – even in the presence of antibodies against influenza that
would usually block infection. Although the antibodies still stuck to
influenza proteins on the hybrid virus’s surface, the virus merely
used neighbouring RSV proteins to infect lung cells instead. Murcia
said: “Influenza is using hybrid viral particles as a Trojan
horse.”

As well as helping the viruses evade the immune system, joining forces
may also enable them to access a wider range of lung cells. Whereas
influenza usually infects cells in the nose, throat and windpipe, RSV
tends to prefer windpipe and lung cells – although there is some
overlap.

Possibly, it could increase the chances of influenza triggering a
severe, and sometimes fatal, lung infection called viral pneumonia,
said Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds.
Although he cautioned that more research was needed to prove that
hybrid viruses are implicated in human disease. “RSV tends to go
lower down into the lung than the seasonal flu virus, and you’re
more likely to get more severe disease the further down the infection
goes,” he said.

“It is another reason to avoid getting infected with multiple
viruses, because this [hybridisation] is likely to happen all the more
if we don’t take precautions to protect our health.”

Significantly, the team showed that the hybrid viruses could infect
cultured layers of cells, as well as individual respiratory cells.
“This is important because the cells are stuck to one another in an
authentic way, and the virus particles will have to go in and out in
the right way,” said Griffin.

The next step is to confirm whether hybrid viruses can form in
patients with co-infections, and if so, which ones. “We need to know
if this happens only with influenza and RSV, or does it extend to
other virus combinations as well,” said Murcia. “My guess is that
it does. And, I would hypothesise that it extends to animal [viruses]
as well. This is just the start of what I think will be a long
journey, of hopefully very interesting discoveries.”

_LINDA GEDDES, a GUARDIAN science correspondent, is an award-winning
British journalist, public speaker and author writing about the
science of sex, death, and everything in-between. _

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* Science
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* biology
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* Medicine
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* viruses
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