KFO309 - The clinical research unit Virus Induced Lung injury

Principal Investigators

Rory E. Morty

Dr. Rory E. Morty , PhD

JustusLiebig University Giessen
Department of Internal Medicine II
Aulweg 123; 35392 Giessen

+49-641-994-7191
Eva Friebertshäuser

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Eva Friebertshäuser

Philipps University Marburg
Institute of Virology
Hans-Meerwein-Str. 3; 35043 Marburg

+49- 6421-2866019
Harald Ehrhardt

PD Dr. med. Harald Ehrhardt

Department of Gen. Pediatrics and Neonatology
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Feulgenstr. 12; 35392 Giessen

+49-641-985-58964

Susceptibility to viral infection driving lung injury and disruption of lung development in neonates with bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Summary

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most common and severe complication of preterm birth, characterized by stunted lung development due to oxygen support of neonates, with medically relevant consequences for respiratory health lasting into adulthood. Affected infants receiving oxygen supplementation are at risk for increased susceptibility to respiratory virus infection, namely influenza virus (IV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Furthermore, the severity of BPD is worsened when affected infants develop respiratory virus infections, either in the neonatal period; or after discharge. Despite the medically important link between preterm birth, oxygen support, and respiratory virus infections, no study to date has examined the mechanisms by which oxygen support can increase the permissiveness of the lung for viral infection, or whether the combination of lung immaturity, oxygen support, and respiratory virus infection worsens lung development in affected infants. Data generated during the first funding period of this study revealed that oxygen support increases the permissiveness of the lung for viral infections, when RSV infection was modelled in newborn mouse pups using pneumonia virus of mice (PVM). Similarly, the combination of oxygen toxicity and PVM infection in the developing lung led to worsening of lung development, compared with oxygen-injured lungs alone. In oxygen-injured lungs, tissue-resident alveolar macrophages (TR-AM) were identified to be pivotal pathogenic mediators of arrested lung development, and oxygen injury to the developing lung was documented to increase host protease activity, which may have facilitated viral replication and infection, which is thus predicted to increase viral susceptibility in developing lungs. In the second funding period, it is intended to explore the interaction between lung immaturity, viral infection, and oxygen support, at a mechanistic level; to facilitate our understanding of how a hyperoxic and a viral insult act cooperatively to drive worsening disease. Amongst the aims are to (i) identify the TR-AM subpopulation(s) that mediate(s) the impact of hyperoxia on lung development; (ii) identify the mechanisms by which oxygen toxicity drives the phenotypical transformation of lung inflammatory cells to promote viral infection, and to stunt lung development; (iii) identify which host proteases are modulated by oxygen toxicity which then creates a permissive environment for viral infection, and thus, increases the susceptibility of the oxygen-injured developing mouse lung to PVM (or IV) infection; and (iv) interrogate pharyngeal fluid harvested from BPD patients with and without respiratory virus infection, to assess whether clinical correlations may be drawn with the preclinical model, with the aim of improving medical management of affected infants to improve resistance to viral infection, and promote proper lung development, in the background of oxygen support

Publications

Cyclosporin A Reveals Potent Antiviral Effects in Preclinical Models of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Am J Respir Crit Care 2022 Apr 15;205(8):964-968. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202108-1830LE

Based Therapies to Prevent or Treat BPD-A Narrative Review on Advances and Ongoing Challenges

Int J Mol Sci 2021 Jan 24;22(3):1138. doi: 10.3390/ijms22031138


WASP: a versatile, web-accessible single cell RNA-Seq processing platform

BMC Genomics 2021 Mar 18;22(1):195. doi: 10.1186/s12864-021-07469-6

A comparison of airway pressures for inflation fixation of developing mouse lungs for stereological analyses

Histochem Cell Biol 2021 Feb;155(2):203-2014. doi 10.1007/s00418-020-01951-0

Immunoglobulin Deficiency as an Indicator of Disease Severity in Patients with COVID-19

Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol 2020 Nov 25. doi 10.1152/ajplung.00359.2020

Severe organising pneumonia following COVID-19

Thorax 2020 Nov 11;thorayjnl-2020-216088. doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216088

Minoxidil Cannot Be Used To Target Lysyl Hydroxylases during Postnatal Mouse Lung Development: A Cautionary Note

J Pharmacol Exp Ther 2020 Dec; 375(3):478-487. doi: 10.1124/jpet.120.000138

Elevated FiO2 increases SARS-CoV-2 co-receptor expression in respiratory tract epithelium

Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2020 Oct 1;319(4):L670-L674. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00345.2020

Commercially available transfection reagents and negative control siRNA are not inert

Anal Biochem 2020 Oct 1;606:113828. doi: 10.1016/j.ab.2020.113828


MSC Based Therapies-New Perspectives for the Injured Lung

J Clin Med 2020 Mar 3;9(3):682. doi: 10.3390/jcm9030682






Recent advances in the pathogenesis of BPD

Semin Perinatol 2018 42(7):404-12














A new target for caffeine in the developing lung: endoplasmic reticulum stress?

Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2017 313(4):L659-L663

Perturbations to lysyl oxidase expression broadly influence the transcriptome of lung fibroblasts

Physiol Genomics 2017 Aug 1;49(8):416-429. doi: 10.1152/physiolgenomics.00026.2017






Stereological monitoring of mouse lung alveolarization from the early post-natal period to adulthood

Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2017 Jun 1;312(6):L882-L895. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00492.2016


Principal Investigators

Rory E. Morty

Dr. Rory E. Morty , PhD

JustusLiebig University Giessen
Department of Internal Medicine II
Aulweg 123; 35392 Giessen

+49-641-994-7191
Eva Friebertshäuser

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Eva Friebertshäuser

Philipps University Marburg
Institute of Virology
Hans-Meerwein-Str. 3; 35043 Marburg

+49- 6421-2866019
Harald Ehrhardt

PD Dr. med. Harald Ehrhardt

Department of Gen. Pediatrics and Neonatology
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Feulgenstr. 12; 35392 Giessen

+49-641-985-58964

Project group

  • Judith Behnke

    Dr. Judith Behnke

    0641-985-43400
  • Misa Gunjak

    Misa Gunjak

    PhD student

  • Miriam Ruth Heindl

    Miriam Ruth Heindl

    PhD student

  • Thijs A. Lilien

    Thijs A. Lilien

    PhD student

  • Nilifer Cevik

    Nilifer Cevik

    Technician

  • Aybike Erdogan

    Aybike Erdogan

    Technician

  • Gabriela Michel

    Gabriela Michel , Technician

    +49-641-985-56357