Productive Infection of Mouse Mammary Glands and Human Mammary Epithelial Cells by Zika Virus

Mathieu Hubert (1) , Aurélie Chiche (2) , Vincent Legros (1, 3) , Patricia Jeannin (1) , Thomas Montange (1) , Antoine Gessain (1) , Pierre-Emmanuel Ceccaldi (1) , Aurore Vidy (1)

1 EPVO (UMR_3569 / U-Pasteur_3) - Epidémiologie et Physiopathologie des Virus Oncogènes / Oncogenic Virus Epidemiology and Pathophysiology
2 Plasticité cellulaire et Modélisation des Maladies / Cellular Plasticity and Disease Modelling
3 CIRI - Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie

Zika virus (ZIKV) belongs to the large category of arboviruses. Surprisingly, several human-to-human transmissions of ZIKV have been notified, either following sexual intercourse or from the mother to fetus during pregnancy. Importantly, high viral loads have been detected in the human breast milk of infected mothers, and the existence of breastfeeding as a new mode of mother-to-child transmission of ZIKV was recently hypothesized. However, the maternal origin of infectious particles in breast milk is currently unknown. Here, we show that ZIKV disseminates to the mammary glands of infected mice after both systemic and local exposure with differential kinetics. Ex vivo, we demonstrate that primary human mammary epithelial cells were sensitive and permissive to ZIKV infection in this study. Moreover, by using in vitro models, we prove that mammary luminal-and myoepithelial-phenotype cell lines are both able to produce important virus progeny after ZIKV exposure. Our data suggest that the dissemination of ZIKV to the mammary glands and subsequent infection of the mammary epithelium could be one mechanism of viral excretion in human breast milk.

Keywords: Zika virus; dissemination; mammary glands; tropism; primary cells; luminal cells; myoepithelial cells

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Emerging diseases

Mathieu Hubert, Aurélie Chiche, Vincent Legros, Patricia Jeannin, Thomas Montange, et al.. Productive Infection of Mouse Mammary Glands and Human Mammary Epithelial Cells by Zika Virus. Viruses, 2019, 11 (10), ⟨10.3390/v11100950⟩. ⟨pasteur-02904631⟩