SPERMATOZOA CAPTURE AND EFFICIENTLY TRANSMIT ZIKA VIRUS TO EPITHELIAL AND DENDRITIC CELLS.

A. VARESE; A. PALETTA; M. GONZALEZ PRINZ; F. REMES LENICOV; F. ERRA DÍAZ; A. LOPEZ MALIZIA; J. SABATTÉ; J. GEFFNER; A. CEBALLOS

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencia; 2017

Sociedades de Biociencia

Zika virus (ZIKV) infection was associated to new born microcephalyand to Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults. Surprisingly, it hasbeen reported sexual transmission of ZIKV, changing our view ofarbovirus-host interaction. Infectious ZIKV persist in semen aftersymptoms onset and at higher viral loads than those found in plasmaor urine. Knowing that semen is not merely a carrier for sexuallytransmitted diseases, we developed experiments to evaluate therole of spermatozoa (sp) in ZIKV transmission.Sp were obtained from healthy donors by swim up purification.Dendritic cells (DC) were obtained from monocytes (GM-CSF/IL-45 days); phenotype was analyzed by flow cytometry and cytokinesproduction by ELISA. ZIKV capture and infection was evaluated byqPCR.Sp (10, 5, 1, 0.5 x106) were incubated with ZIKV (5x105 ufp) 90min, then cells were washed twice to remove free virus. We observedthat sp captured ZIKV (n=3 p<0.05) and trypsin pretreated sp(15 min 37°C) showed no ZIKV attached (n=3 p<0.05), suggestinga protein mediated interaction. To evaluate if sp was able to transmitZIKV, sp charged with ZIKV were cultured with epithelial cells monolayersor DC (2x105/200ul) for 72hs. We observed that sp+ZIKVwere able to transmit the virus to cells (n=3 p<0.001). Even more,when the same quantity of ZIKV was offer to cells without sp, wefound the levels of infection were lower (n=3 p<0.005), so sp facilitatethe infection.Lastly we analyzed the phenotype and functionality exerted byZIKV to DC. DC (2x105/200ul) were infected with ZIKV (5x105 or5x104 ufp), 72hs later we found: an increase of CD86, CD83, CD80and CD40 expression (n=2 p<0.05), an enhanced production of IL-12 and IL-1β (n=2 p<0.05), and decreased IL-10 (n=2 p<0.05). Wealso observed a higher ability to induce IFN-γ and TNF-α productionby alloreactive lymphocytes (n=2 p<0.05).Our observations support the notion that sp facilitate and mightaffect the early course of sexual transmission of ZIKV infection.