Presenter(s): Ruth Vanelle Nouboussi − Human Physiology
Faculty Mentor(s): Sierra Dawson
Poster 39
Research Area: Natural/Physical Science
The Murine Norovirus is a common virus used in mice experiments in many research facilities. The virus alters the cellular morphology in hematopoietic cells and it is transmitted through fecal or oral routes. This study focuses on CW3 & CR6 strains of the mouse norovirus. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if the strains that use the CW3 capsid produces more IL-1α (cytokine released as a measure of the degree of inflammation) and cell death compared to the CR6 capsid. We performed a Mouse IL-1α Elisa on virally infected BMDCs (Bone Marrow-derived Dendritic Cells), a virus-mediated cytotoxicity assay performed on BV2 cells (mice microglia cell line) using CW3, CR6, CW3-VP1^CR6 (CW3 virus strain with the CR6 capsid; VP! shows that there was a capsid swap) and CR6-VP1^CW3 chimeric viruses to determine the necessity for VP1^CW3 in IL-1α secretion and cytotoxicity. Using two-way ANOVA testing, we found that there was more LDH (Lactate DeHydrogenase) released in the supernatant of cells infected with strains that use the CW3 capsid compared to CR6 capsid at MOI (Multiplicity Of Infections) 10, 1 and 0.1, and there was less LDH present in the supernatant of cells infected with strains that use the CR6 capsid compared to the CW3 capsid. We also found significantly more IL-1α in the supernatant from cells infected with strains that use CW3 compared to wild type and CR6 (P < 0.05). These findings demonstrate that the CW3 capsid produced more IL-1α and also caused more cell death compared to CR6.