Susceptibility of Jamaican Fruit Bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) Pulmonary Endothelial Cells to Cedar Virus
Category: Research Poster
Author(s): Arianna Joob
Presenter(s): Arianna Joob
Mentors(s): Laura Pulscher
Bats serve as reservoirs for many viruses, including paramyxoviruses, including the henipaviruses Hendra and Nipah viruses, which can cause fatal diseases in humans and other animals. In humans, these viruses infect endothelial cells. However, viral replication mechanisms of these viruses in bat endothelial cells are not well understood due to the lack of bat-derived endothelial cell cultures. In this study, we aimed to establish pulmonary microvascular endothelial cell lines (PMECs) from Jamaican fruit bats (Artibeus jamaicensis) and assess their susceptibility to Cedar virus (CedV), a BSL-2 bat-borne henipavirus. We cultured and expanded primary PMECs from an ongoing Jamaican fruit bat study. Flow cytometry was used to identify cross-reactive endothelial cell markers. To test susceptibility to CedV, duplicate PMECs and Vero E6 cells were cultured and inoculated with CedV encoding a green fluorescent protein (CedV-GFP) at a 0.1 multiplicity of infection (MOI). Flow cytometry results indicated heterogeneous PMEC cell populations with variable susceptibility and permissibility. Using anti-PMEC antibodies, they may enable generation of more homogeneous CedV-permissive cell lines. In silico analysis of endothelial cell marker poly-peptide sequences of CD31, CD104, CD105, and CD144 indicate high homology. Following the in silico analysis, several clones of each marker were screened for cross-reactivity against Jamaican fruit bat PMECs via flow cytometry, and cross-reactive clones for each marker of interest were identified. The generation of a PMEC cell line offers opportunities to study viral replication of and bat immune responses to henipaviruses.