Peiqi Yin
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Chikungunya virus spreads through mosquito bites and causes fever and joint pain that can drag on for months or years as a form of arthritis. A puzzle is why antibodies, which normally neutralize viruses floating between cells, sometimes fail to clear the infection.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
alphavirus
chikungunya virus
Mayaro virus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Oct 2027
What they work on
- Map which domains of the chikungunya envelope proteins must be bound to stop cell-to-cell spread, using a panel of monoclonal antibodies that do or do not block the formation of intercellular long extensions.
- Test serum from chikungunya patients for the ability to inhibit cell-to-cell spread and correlate that activity, and the envelope targets involved, with each patient's recorded disease progression.
- Determine whether Mayaro virus also induces intercellular long extensions and cell-to-cell transmission, and whether chikungunya and Mayaro use this route in mosquito cells as well as mammalian cells.
- Identify the stromal and blood-derived cell types infected via cell-to-cell spread in mouse models, by comparing infection after treatment with antibodies that do or do not block this pathway.
- Test in Rag1-deficient mice, which make no antibodies of their own, whether antibody blockade of cell-to-cell spread is required to limit viral dissemination and persistent chikungunya infection.
- Test whether blocking cell-to-cell spread with defined monoclonal antibodies prevents disease in Ifnar1-deficient mice, which lack interferon signaling and are highly susceptible to severe alphavirus disease.
More about the research
Recent collaborative work showed that infected cells grow long, stable extensions that reach out and touch neighboring cells, and that the virus can travel through these bridges directly from cell to cell. Because the virus never becomes exposed in the bloodstream during this hand-off, even high concentrations of neutralizing antibodies cannot stop it. This project asks how important that hidden route is for disease and how antibodies can be made to block it.
Why it matters
Chikungunya virus has infected millions of people worldwide in the past 15 years, and many survivors live with lasting joint pain. If direct cell-to-cell spread lets the virus hide from antibodies, then therapeutic antibodies and vaccines that only neutralize free virus may fall short. Identifying the envelope sites whose blockade shuts down this route could guide the design of antibody treatments and vaccines that work against alphavirus disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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David Koelle
University of Washington, WA·Microbiology & Immunology
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The school
Albert Einstein College of Medicine: 21 labs on PI Pages, $361M a year on research, 36 research doctorates a year.
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