A modified lysosomal organelle mediates nonlytic egress of reovirus.

How reoviruses get released from cells

30 November 2020

Human reoviruses, pathogens responsible for respiratory and digestive diseases in young children, hijack a molecular waste-disposal system to escape from infected cells and so infect other cells. This finding could inform the design of new drugs for treating the viruses.

Using advanced microscopy and image analysis techniques, a team co-led by scientists at the Spanish National Research Council visualized how infectious reoviral particles break free of human brain cells.

They found that the virus travels in membrane-enclosed packets that emerge from lysosome-like organelles during the late stages of infection. Those packets then travel to the edge of the cell, where they fuse with the plasma membrane and eject their viral cargo.

The detailed picture of this egress pathway could lead to new treatments for combating reovirus.

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References

1. Journal of Cell Biology 219, e201910131 (2020). doi: 10.1083/jcb.201910131