Diverse RNA viruses of parasitic nematodes can elicit antibody responses in vertebrate hosts

Quek, Shannon and Hadermann, Amber and Wu, Yang and De Coninck, Lander and Hegde, Shrilakshmi and Boucher, Jordan R and Cresswell, Jessica and Foreman, Ella and Steven, Andrew and LaCourse, E James and Ward, Stephen A and Wanji, Samuel and Hughes, Grant L and Patterson, Edward I and Wagstaff, Simon C and Turner, Joseph D and Parry, Rhys H and Kohl, Alain and Heinz, Eva and Otabil, Kenneth Bentum and Matthijnssens, Jelle and Colebunders, Robert and Taylor, Mark J (2024) Diverse RNA viruses of parasitic nematodes can elicit antibody responses in vertebrate hosts. Nature microbiology, 9 (10). pp. 2488-2505. ISSN 2058-5276 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01796-6)

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Abstract

Parasitic nematodes have an intimate, chronic and lifelong exposure to vertebrate tissues. Here we mined 41 published parasitic nematode transcriptomes from vertebrate hosts and identified 91 RNA viruses across 13 virus orders from 24 families in ~70% (28 out of 41) of parasitic nematode species, which include only 5 previously reported viruses. We observe widespread distribution of virus–nematode associations across multiple continents, suggesting an ancestral acquisition event and host–virus co-evolution. Characterization of viruses of Brugia malayi (BMRV1) and Onchocerca volvulus (OVRV1) shows that these viruses are abundant in reproductive tissues of adult parasites. Importantly, the presence of BMRV1 RNA in B. malayi parasites mounts an RNA interference response against BMRV1 suggesting active viral replication. Finally, BMRV1 and OVRV1 were found to elicit antibody responses in serum samples from infected jirds and infected or exposed humans, indicating direct exposure to the immune system.

ORCID iDs

Quek, Shannon, Hadermann, Amber, Wu, Yang, De Coninck, Lander, Hegde, Shrilakshmi, Boucher, Jordan R, Cresswell, Jessica, Foreman, Ella, Steven, Andrew, LaCourse, E James, Ward, Stephen A, Wanji, Samuel, Hughes, Grant L, Patterson, Edward I, Wagstaff, Simon C, Turner, Joseph D, Parry, Rhys H, Kohl, Alain, Heinz, Eva ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4413-3756, Otabil, Kenneth Bentum, Matthijnssens, Jelle, Colebunders, Robert and Taylor, Mark J;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)