Cellular visualization of macrophage pyroptosis and interleukin-1β release in a viral hemorrhagic infection in zebrafish larvae

14 páginas, 8 figuras

Hemorrhagic viral diseases are distributed worldwide with important pathogens, such as dengue virus or hantaviruses. The lack of adequate in vivo infection models has limited the research on viral pathogenesis and the current understanding of the underlying infection mechanisms. Although hemorrhages have been associated with the infection of endothelial cells, other cellular types could be the main targets for hemorrhagic viruses. Our objective was to take advantage of the use of zebrafish larvae in the study of viral hemorrhagic diseases, focusing on the interaction between viruses and host cells. Cellular processes, such as transendothelial migration of leukocytes, virus-induced pyroptosis of macrophages. and interleukin-1β (Il-1β) release, could be observed in individual cells, providing a deeper knowledge of the immune mechanisms implicated in the disease. Furthermore, the application of these techniques to other pathogens will improve the current knowledge of host-pathogen interactions and increase the potential for the discovery of new therapeutic targets.

This work was supported by the projects CSD2007-00002 “Aquagenomics” and AGL2011-28921-C03 from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía e Innovación and European structural funds (FEDER) / Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (CSIC08-1E-102). Our laboratory is also funded by ITN 289209 “FISHFORPHARMA” (EU) and project 201230E057 from the Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

Peer reviewed