Anita McElroy
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Rift Valley fever virus is a mosquito-borne virus found across Africa, and in some areas where it circulates more than half of people have been exposed by adulthood. Infection can be a short fever, but it can also cause hepatitis, inflammation of the liver, or a delayed brain infection called encephalitis.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Neuroscience
- Topics
Rift Valley fever virus
bunyavirus
arbovirus
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Determine the route by which Rift Valley fever virus spreads from a peripheral site to the central nervous system, using mouse models in which virus is injected into the footpad to mimic a mosquito bite.
- Distinguish among candidate brain-entry mechanisms, such as infection of brain microvascular endothelial cells, passage between blood-brain barrier junctions, transport inside migrating immune cells, or retrograde travel along peripheral nerves.
- Identify which cell types must be infected for the virus to enter the brain, through paired cell-culture and whole-animal infection experiments.
- Identify the innate immune sensors and antiviral effector molecules that detect and respond to the virus in biologically relevant primary human cells.
- Define how key innate immune sensors and effectors, including interferon signaling, shape infection outcome in vivo, and test the role of hematopoietic cell infection in disease severity.
More about the research
Brain involvement causes serious illness and death, and there are no approved human vaccines or drugs. Two projects address complementary gaps: how the virus travels from the skin to the brain, and how the body's first-line defenses detect and respond to it in different cell types.
Why it matters
Rift Valley fever virus causes substantial illness across Africa, and brain infection can lead to death or lasting disability with no vaccine or treatment available for people. Defining how the virus reaches the brain and which cells must be infected is described as a necessary first step toward therapies that prevent this complication. Mapping which immune sensors protect against disease could point to targets for drugs or vaccine design.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Cynthia McMillen
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Compare mother-to-offspring transmission of four Oropouche virus strains (BeAn19991, BeH759021, LET2083, AM0088) from four genetically distinct lineages, to test whether genomic reassortment underlies changes in tissue targeting and virulence.
Bryan Mounce
Loyola University Chicago, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how RNA viruses use polyamines, small molecules found in all cells, to bind to and enter cells, comparing Coxsackievirus B3, Rift Valley fever virus and chikungunya virus.
Natasha Tilston
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify, using cell culture infection experiments, how the different glycoproteins carried by circulating Oropouche virus reassortants change viral phenotypes such as entry into host cells.
The school
University of Pittsburgh: 83 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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