Examining the Effects of Environmental Compounds on Influenza Virus Ecology

The natural reservoir for influenza A virus (IAV) is wild aquatic birds, where the virus transmits usuallywith low-pathogenicity to the hosts. However, these viruses can spillover into other animals, includingmarine mammals and humans, with devastating consequences: causing outbreaks and in some casesmass mortalities. Marine mammals, at the top of their food chains, are highly contaminated withpersistent organic pollutants (POPs) due to their bioaccumulative properties and stability.Contamination with POPs is known to increase the susceptibility of animals, including humans, toinfectious diseases. However, it is unclear environmentally relevant POPs may be affecting the infectivityof IAV at the cellular and viral levels. In this study, we utilized an in vitro approach to study the effects ofmixture of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides on IAV replication. POPs limitthe short-term and long-term replication of both an H1N1 WSN-GFP virus and an HiN1 PR8 virus. Weapplied a variety of techniques including immunostaining, targeted gene expression analysis, andtransmission electron microscopy to dissect the mechanism underlying these effects. Overall, we findthat POPs can interact with both host-cells and virions directly to decrease viral infectivity.