Human SLAM-adapted canine distemper virus can enter human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and replicate in mice expressing human SLAM and defective for STAT1 expression

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Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a member of the genus Morbillivirus with a worldwide distribution that causes fatal diseases in canids and marine mammals. In recent years, CDV has demonstrated the remarkable ability of pathogens to cross species barriers. The natural host range of CDV has expanded from Canidae to Primates, presumably attributed to ecological shifts and the emergence of viral variants. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether CDV can infect humans by adapting to the human signalling lymphocyte activation molecule (hSLAM) receptor to cross the species barrier. Through successive passaging and plaque cloning of a CDV wild-type strain (5804PeH) in Vero cells expressing hSLAM (Vero-hSLAM), we obtained an hSLAM adaptive strain, 5804PeH-VhS. The adapted CDV strain exhibited a D540G mutation within the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the haemagglutinin (H) protein. The HD540G mutation has enhanced cell-cell fusion activity in Vero-hSLAM cells. This adaptation allowed the CDV strain to infect human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), particularly T lymphocytes and inhibited lymphocyte proliferation. Additionally, this strain could replicate in the lymphoid tissues of transgenic mice that express the hSLAM receptor, causing viraemia. However, the adapted strain did not spread to the epithelial cells or the central nervous system of the mice. While this adaptation indicates a potential risk, there is no definitive evidence that the virus can spread among humans.

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