Abundance and Immunogenicity of two giant viruses, namely Pithovirius lacustris and Urceolovirus corneum

Joint Event on 14^th International Conference on Microbial Interactions & Microbial Ecology & 11^th Edition of International Conference on Advances in Microbiology and Public Health

August 19-20, 2019 Vienna, Austria

Yetunde Adegboye, Mazen Atia, Anna Sigmund, Anne Kruger, Witold Bartosik, Jan Buer, Rolf Michel, Karl-Dieter Muller and Carsten Kirschning

University Hospital Essen-University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Med Microb Diagn

Abstract :

Giant virus (GVs) parasitizing environmental acanthamoebae have been isolated from various humidic habitates (1, 2). We analyzed Pithovirus lacustris (alias KC5/2) and Urceolovirus corneum (alias KlaHel) which was first isolated from a sweet water reservoir Koblenz, Germany, and the cornea of a keratitis patient respectively, for their prevalence and immunogenicity. The lack of visibility of distinct cytoplasmic structures such as ribosomes against the background of their boarded corked keg-like bacteria size appearance rendered them as being of archea-like. Despite containing a bacterial genome sized dsDNA genome, their reproduction depends on infection and propagation within an amoeba host. Although DNA isolated from various global samples were PCR positive, culturing of these giant viruses succeeded merely for one sample collected by us. However, we observed substantial seropositiveness for both viruses from healthy blood donor samples, indicating potential ubiquity of the GVs after human contact with them in their environmental habitats. Despite lack of a capacity to elicit any pathology in mice, GVs challenge, elicits seropositivity and activates macrophages indicating carriage of an innate immune stimulatory potential. Specific aspects of it have been observed by us.

Recent Publications

1. Hoffmann R, Michel R, Müller K D, Amann R and Schmid E N (1998) Archaea like endocytobiotic organisms isolated from Acanthamoeba Sp (Gr II). Endocytobiosis & Cell Res. 12: 185-188.

2. Scheid P Zöller, L Pressmar S, Richard G and Michel R (2008) An extraordinary endocytobiont in Acanthamoeba sp. isolated from a patient with keratitis. Parasitol Res 102(5):945-950.

3. Abrahao J, Silva L, Silva L S, Yaacoub Bou Khalil J Y, Rodrigues R, Arantes T, Assis F, Boratto P, Andrade M, Kroon E G, Ribeiro B, Bergier I, Seligmann H, Ghigo E, Colson P, Levasseur A, Kroemer G and Raoult D B (2018) Tailed giant Tupanvirus possesses the most complete translational apparatus of the known virosphere. Nature Communications 9:749

Biography :

She has her expertise in isolation and analysis of biological entities from complex environmental samples. She developed a protocol in which a target virus could be isolated from complex environmental mixtures and analyzed.

E-mail: yetunde.adegboye@uk-essen.de