How a gut virus hijacks mucus production to slip past the body's protective barrier
Among the various viruses that sicken your gut, some at least leave behind a tiny path of cellular destruction as they replicate, implicating the guilty pathogen. Both rotavirus and norovirus invade the small intestine, multiply there and can break through the organ's outer lining as one way of proliferating in the body.
A new study from the University of California, Santa Cruz has revealed an innovative method by which astrovirus, a type of virus that causes pediatric diarrhea, evades the body's protective mucus barrier. Unlike other viruses like rotavirus and norovirus that damage tissue as they replicate, astrovirus cleverly "follows the mucus" for its exit strategy.
The research team, led by Valerie Cortez, discovered that astrovirus takes advantage of mucus secretion from goblet cells to complete its replication cycle within these cells. Goblet cells produce mucus that insulates the intestinal wall, preventing most microbes from infiltrating the body. By hijacking this process, astrovirus manages to spread without destroying host cells.
The study, published in PLOS Pathogens, utilized both mouse and human cell-culture models to confirm that mucus serves as a pathway for astrovirus release. Blocking mucus secretion decreased viral release, while stimulating it increased the level of virus. This new insight into astrovirus-host interactions provides potential targets for treating pediatric diarrhea and could lead to novel therapeutic strategies to prevent its spread.
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