Researchers from the National University of Singapore have recently found a revolutionary method to grow human norovirus (HuNoV) in zebrafish embryos (1). HuNoV, a common and worldwide cause of acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis, has been refractory to culture in vitro as well as in vivo. The use of zebrafish embryos for HuNoV culture promises to an important breakthrough.
HuNoV, a spherical, non-enveloped virus (~ 27 nm in diameter) discovered in 1972 by Kapikian et al. (2), has emerged as the cause of over 680 million annual cases of acute gastroenteritis globally with >212,000 fatalities. Unlike most other pathogens, this virus affects individuals of all ages with cases being common in both developed and developing countries.
The study reported here promises to expedite the study of HuNoV biology, its detection in water, food and in the environment as well as the identification of effective means of its decontamination by disinfectants and hand hygiene agents.
CREM Co Labs already has extensive expertise in the study of a variety of human and animal pathogenic viruses, including the mouse norovirus. CREM Co Labs recently developed the method for rapid detection of Human norovirus in food, water and environmental samples using RT-qPCR. Culturing human norovirus using zebrafish embryos opens a new window toward the study of survival and inactivation of human norovirus in laboratory. Our researchers are in the process of establishing the method of using zebrafish embryos for culturing human norovirus at CREM Co Labs.
References
1. Tan MTH, Gong Z, Li D. 2023. Use of Zebrafish Embryos To Reproduce Human Norovirus and To Evaluate Human Norovirus Infectivity Decay after UV Treatment. Appl Environ Microbiol 89: e00115-23. https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.00115-23
Kapikian AZ, Wyatt RG, Dolin R, Thornhill TS, Kalica AR, Chanock RM. Visualization by immune
electron microscopy of a 27-nm particle associated with acute infectious nonbacterial gastroenteritis. J Virol. 1972 Nov;10(5):1075-81. doi: 10.1128/JVI.10.5.1075-1081.1972. PMID: 4117963; PMCID: PMC356579.