| Grant number: | 08/50617-6 |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Projects - Thematic Grants |
| Start date: | September 01, 2008 |
| End date: | December 31, 2012 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Microbiology |
| Agreement: | CNPq - PPSUS |
| Principal Investigator: | Luiz Tadeu Moraes Figueiredo |
| Grantee: | Luiz Tadeu Moraes Figueiredo |
| Host Institution: | Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (FMRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil |
| Pesquisadores principais: | Aparecida Yulie Yamamoto ; Benedito Antônio Lopes da Fonseca ; Eurico de Arruda Neto ; Victor Hugo Aquino Quintana |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 11/20447-4 - Infections by arbovirus Oropouche, Mayaro, Chikungunya and West Nile Virus in wild birds in the State of São Paulo,
BP.PD 09/14552-0 - Prospective study of dengue virus infection in children in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo., BP.DR |
Abstract
This 4 year-long thematic project, includes 7 main subprojects-sections subdivided into 42 research subprojects. Five principal researchers and 58 colaborator researchers will participate in the project, which will be developed in the virus research unit of the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. Arboviruses and roboviruses of great importance in public health such as dengue, yellow fever, hantaviruses, aernaviruses, and viruses that cause infection of the central nervous system such as Rocio virus and Saint Louis encephalitis virus will be studied as part of this research project. Other studies will include agents that cause large outbreaks in Brazil such as Oropouche virus. Besides, other viruses will be part of the study because they represent an emergent threat of outbreaks in the most populated areas of the country. These are yellow fever. Oropouche, Saint Louis encephalitis and Mayaro viruses. Foreign viruses, such as West Nile virus, that probably will be introduced into Brazil and Bocavirus, a respiratory transmitted virus recently described also will be studied as part of this project. For studying these viruses, serologic ELISAs using recombinant proteins of Oropouche virus, Hantavirus and Arenavirus as antigens will be standardized and recombinant peptides of the E protein of Saint Louis encephalitis, Rocio and West Nile viruses will be produced. We will also standardize an enzyme immunoassay using arbovirus (dengue, Mayaro, Oropouche virus) infected cells as antigen and an unprecedented neutralization test for Hantavirus read by real time RT-PCR. Furthermore, we will detect arbovirus, robovirus, human bocavirus and human herpesvirus type 6 genomes by real time RT-PCR, and will try to isolate a Hantavirus for the first time in Brazil, in our biosafety level 3 laboratories. Studies on physiopathology of diseases will include a search for dengue and Hantavirus infections in platelets, a study on cardiac function in Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome patients, a search for apoptosis in Oropouche virus infections and a study of the central nervous infection by Rocio virus in a mouse experimental model. We will also look for target tissues of infection and replication of human Bocavirus. Epidemiologic studies will be carried out searching for rodent reservoirs of Hantavirus and looking for antibodies to arbovirus and robovirus in Cássia dos Coqueiros County, SP, in the southern state of Santa Catarina and in the Amazonas state, in the North of Brazil. Equines also will be studied by a serologic survey looking for Saint Louis encephalitis, Rocio and West Nile virus infection. Molecular epidemiology studies will include genotyping dengue virus type 3 isolated in different regions of Brazil and Paraguay, as well as detected in patients with diseases of different severities. This part will include the analysis of genomes and phylogenetic studies of Saint Louis encephalitis virus, as well as other arboviruses and roboviruses that eventually will be isolated in our BSL3 facility. The full-genome phylogenesis of Brazilian Bocavirus also will be studied. Finally, we will perform studies on vaccines and antiviral drugs, evaluating the immunogenetic ability of recombinant peptides of the E protein of Rocio and Saint Louis encephalitis viruses; isolating and testing the immunogenicity of a cold-adapted mutant of Oropouche virus and testing the potential antiviral action of chloroquine against this virus. (AU)
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