Team presentation

Founded ex-nihilo in 2012, the EA-4684 (CardioVir) team located in the Faculty of Medicine of Reims is composed of University Hospital Researchers (professors or assistant professors), hospital practitioners from Medical Virology, medical pathology, Cardiology and Infectious Diseases of the University Hospital of Reims as well as young researchers (postdocs and PhD students) assisted by a full-time researcher, a full-time research technician and a joint secretariat. Our research project concerns the study of "viral cardiovascular infections and the inflammatory response in human pathology". Our goal is to explore the viral and inflammatory molecular mechanisms implicated in viral persistence during cardiac viral infections (group B Enterovirus) in immunocompetent patients and their involvement in the development of unexplained dilated cardiomyopathy (idiopathic DCM) that represents the second leading cause of heart transplantation in the world.

Members

Professors or associated professors: 5
Hospital practitioners: 5

Assistant professors: 3
Researcher: 1
BIATSS: 1

Research technician: 1
PhD students: 3
Post-docs: 1

Key words

Virus, molecular virology, myocarditis, sudden cardiac death, viral genomic recombination, innate immunity

Research topics

- Identification of molecular mechanisms involved in the generation and the persistence of EV-B viral forms truncated at the 5 'NCR
- Study of Molecular and Inflammatory Viral Mechanisms involved in the transition from Acute to Chronic CVB3-Induced Myocarditis in mice
- Impact of CVB3 genome deletions at the 5 'end on the activation of the different signaling pathways involved in the innate immune response
- Development of new antiviral strategies targeting viral protease 2A or 3D polymerase of coxsackie B viruses

Know-how

- Use of confocal microscopy and flow cytometry techniques to study viral replication mechanisms
- Histological, immunohistochemical and molecular analyzes (in situ hybridization) of cardiac tissues
- Murine models of acute and chronic heart infection induced by human enteroviruses
- Culture of primary and fetal human cardiac cells
- Exploration of the inflammatory response in human and murine cardiac cells
- Generation of GFP-tagged replicons and genetically modified viruses
- Modulation and extinction of gene(s) expression in human cardiac cells using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology

Equipment

- Automatic extractor DNA/RNA Easymag NucliSens, Biomerieux; France
- Automatic station of pipetting EpiMotion, Eppendorf; France
- Real-time PCR machine, Applied Biosystems; France
- Low density biochip platform, Genomica; Madrid, Spain
- Microbiological safety laboratories level L2 (SFR CAP-Santé) and level L3 (University Hospital)
- Animal biosafety level A2 and transgenic laboratory (SFR CAP-Santé)

Patents

None in 2017

Partnerships

International partnerships:

Pr Bert SEMLER, PhD
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
School of Medicine
Director, Center for Virus Research
Research Centers and Institutes
University of California
Medical Sciences I, B-237
Mail Code: 4025
Irvine, CA 92697

Pr Steven Tracy, PhD and Dr N Chapman, PhD
Department of Pathology and Microbiology
University of Nebraska Medical Center
986495 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha
NE 68195-6495, USA
E-mail: stracy@unmc.edu ; nchapman@unmc.edu

Pr Andrea Frustaci, MD PhD
University Hospital center
Cardiovacular Unit
LA Sapienza Roma; Italia
E-mail: biocard@inmi.it

Dr Ardan Saguner, MD , PhD
University Heart Center, Department of Cardiology,
Zurich, 8091, Switzerland

Pr J Lindsay Whitton , MD, PhD
Department of Immunology and Microbiology,
SP30-2110, The Scripps Research Institute,
10550 N. Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla, CA 92037, USA

Professor J George Dickson PhD
Chair of Molecular Cell Biology, School of Biological Sciences
Royal Holloway - University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK.
E-mail: g.dickson@rhul.ac.uk

National partnerships:

Pr Patrick Bruneval, MD PhD
Service d’anatomo-pathologie
H.E.G.P. 20, rue Leblanc 75908 PARIS
E-mail: patrick.bruneval@hop.egp.ap-hop-paris.fr

Pr Elie Mousseaux, MD PhD
Inserm U678/UPMC-Université Paris 6
H.E.G.P. 20, rue Leblanc 75908 PARIS
E-mail: elie.mousseaux@gmail.com

Dr Marco Vignuzzi, PhD
Viral Populations and Pathogenesis Group
CNRS URA 3015
Pasteur Institute
PVP-Vignuzzi, Batiment Lwoff
28 rue du Dr Roux
75724 PARIS Cedex 15 France
E-mail: marco.vignuzzi@pasteur.fr

Pr Jean-Luc IMLER, PhD
CNRS-UPR9022
Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire
15, rue René Descartes
F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex
E-mail: jl.imler@ibmc-cnrs.unistra.fr

Pr B Lina, MD, PhD
Centre National de Référence des Enterovirus et Parechovirus
Laboratoire de Virologie Est- CHU de Lyon
Centre de Biologie et de Pathologie Est
Groupement Hospitalier Est
59, boulevard Pinel, 69677 BRON cedex

Industrial partnerships:

- Biomérieux
- Biosynex Group
- Inodex group

Academic partnerships:

Wuhan Institute of Virology, Pr Zhengli Shi (zlshi@wh.iov.cn)
Wuhan University and Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Xiaohongshan 44, Wuchang, Wuhan 430071, P. R. China,
Tel: (86-27) 87198685, Fax: (86-27)

University of California, Pr Bert SEMLER,
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
School of Medicine Director, Center for Virus Research
Research Centers and Institutes
blsemler@uci.edu