Soapbox Science 2021 – Hannah Wallace, “Wanted for Cellular Murder: Viruses”
As you all know all too well, viruses can impact every aspect of our lives. They pose a huge threat to public and individual health. (There are viruses that are also good for humans but that’s a topic for another day.) Today I’d like to introduce you to some of virology’s most wanted (other than the coronavirus): Hepatitis C Virus and Influenza.
My name is Hannah Wallace and I am working on my PhD in virology in the Russell Lab at Memorial University. I do what we call “basic science” which means I work in a lab growing cells and infecting them with viruses to study how viruses affect our cells.
Before I introduce Hepatitis C virus and influenza, I should tell you both of them are guilty of cellular murder!
Almost all cells in our bodies have built-in mechanisms to die. There are several pathways and ways of triggering death of the cell, with different outcomes dependent on the pathway. Some people may have heard of apoptosis which is a non-inflammatory form of cell death. I study a mechanism of cell death that is somewhat similar called pyroptosis, a form of cell death that results in the cell exploding and releasing everything that was inside.
Pyroptosis is an inflammatory form of cell death since the cell explosion can trigger your immune system to go into overdrive. Your immune system works as your body’s defenders, protecting you from bacteria, viruses, and other things that can make you sick. Your immune system usually works in relation to the size of the threat. Think of a small bonfire. You should have a small fire extinguisher in order to put out the fire if it gets too big. That’s usually how your immune system works. However, sometimes instead of your immune system putting out the fire with the fire extinguisher, it tries to put out the fire by dousing the fire with gas. This makes the fire even larger. And sometimes that’s what happens when your immune system responds to a virus. This effect is triggered by the virus itself.
Viruses kill cells and over-stimulate the immune system to benefit themselves. If a virus kills a cell and everything inside the cell is released, including new baby viruses then there are more baby viruses to infect more cells. I study how Hepatitis C virus and influenza cause pyroptosis.
Hepatitis C virus is transmitted through blood and, if it is left untreated, can cause liver inflammation, scaring, and even liver cancer. The good news about Hepatitis C virus is that there are drugs that completely get rid of virus in 95% of people. My research goals are to understand how hepatitis C virus causes pyroptosis and to understand how the process of pyroptosis leads to liver damage.
Influenza viruses come in many varieties. Some infect humans (like the ones we get our flu shots to protect us against), some infect birds, some infect pigs, some infect bats, and some can even infect marine mammals! We already know influenza viruses cause pyroptosis and that it contributes to why and how people get sick. What we don’t know, is if different influenza viruses all trigger the same kind of cell death in the same way. So my influenza research is comparing cell death caused by many different influenza viruses.
Overall, my research goals are to understand how viruses kill cells that they infect, if this contributes to disease (pathology) associated with a given virus, and eventually to be able to stop the cell death from happening in order to improve the lives of people infected with these viruses.