Chapter 1. Lipid Droplets as Potential Antiviral Targets for Flaviviruses

IRENE BOSCH; CORDO SANDRA M; FEDERICO GIOVANNONI; MAURICIO LACERDA NOGUEIRA; VÁZQUEZ, CECILIA A.; MÂNLIO TASSO DE OLIVEIRA MOTA; CYBELE CARINA GARCÍA

Lipid Droplets

NOVA Science Publishers

Año: 2019; p. 1 - 20

Lipid droplets (LDs) are intracellular sites for neutral lipid storage critical for lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis. Structurally, LDs have a rich lipid content but they also contain several functionally diverse types of proteins, including already described pro and antiviral relevant factors. New roles for LDs in immunity have been uncovered, with evidence that they act as assembly and replication platforms for specific viruses and as reservoirs for proteins that counteract intracellular pathogens. LDs might also have potential implications for mechanisms of cell proliferation and differentiation, affecting viral replication. Cell pathological conditions have been noticed to share an altered lipogenesis phenotype. However, the mechanisms that regulate LDs formation or consumption and how their function impacts the cellular biology remain unknown. These evidences led us to investigate the effect of the alteration of LDs abundance during the replication of mosquito-transmitted flaviviruses. Our in vitro studies show that there is a decreased LDs content in dengue, Zika and yellow fever infected cells, demonstrating that these structures might be essential for diverse RNA virus life cycle and could be considered a novel antiviral target.