Title Differential role of sphingomyelin in influenza virus, rhinovirus and SARS-CoV-2 infection of Calu-3 cells.
Author Dissanayake, Thrimendra Kaushika; Yan, Bingpeng; Ng, Anthony Chin-Ki; Zhao, Hanjun; Chan, Gabriella; Yip, Cyril Chik-Yan; Sze, Kong-Hung; To, Kelvin Kai-Wang
Journal J Gen Virol Publication Year/Month 2021-May
PMID 33956593 PMCID -N/A-
Affiliation + expend 1.State Key Laboratory for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Carol Yu Centre for Infection, Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, PR China.

Host cell lipids play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of respiratory virus infection. However, a direct comparison of the lipidomic profile of influenza virus and rhinovirus infections is lacking. In this study, we first compared the lipid profile of influenza virus and rhinovirus infection in a bronchial epithelial cell line. Most lipid features were downregulated for both influenza virus and rhinovirus, especially for the sphingomyelin features. Pathway analysis showed that sphingolipid metabolism was the most perturbed pathway. Functional study showed that bacterial sphingomyelinase suppressed influenza virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) replication, but promoted rhinovirus replication. These findings suggest that sphingomyelin pathway can be a potential target for antiviral therapy, but should be carefully evaluated as it has opposite effects on different respiratory viruses. Furthermore, the differential effect of sphingomyelinase on rhinovirus and influenza virus may explain the interference between rhinovirus and influenza virus infection.

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