The high economic impact of viral outbreaks in aquaculture supports the need for the development of prophylactic and therapeutic solutions to assist animal health management. In fact virus are responsible for 8 of the 10 diseases with great social and economic and/or public health repercussion or even present a potential risk for the aquaculture industry . However, some effort has been devoted towards the study of viral response in fish, the underpinning antiviral mechanisms activated and the application of vaccines. Yet in order to do so, a better understand of fish basic antiviral mechanisms is necessary. The AQUAVIP project gathers a team mostly composed of researchers with important knowledge on the modulation of fish immune responses and disease resistance, ex perts in genetics and researchers with an important know-how on the field of antiviral mechanisms of fish. All aligned, the AQUAVIP team intends to create the tools to the creation of innovative and sustainable strategies to improve fish antiviral response and resistance to viral pathogens.
Antiviral response is mostly sustained by non-specific mechanisms with interferons (INF) comprising the central effector system for antiviral response in all animals, including fish . A recent attention has been given to a particular IFN effector, viperin (VIP) that despite being identified for more than 20 years, its action mechanisms have been only recently described. VIP antiviral activity is proposed to be due its interaction with viral RNA. By catalysing the conversion of CTP to ddhCTP, VIP inhibits viral replication since the modified nucleotide, when fused into the nascent chain of the viral RNA, acts as a chain terminator impairing its polymerization. This antiviral mechanism is widely recognized in mammals, however, multiple other roles of VIP, besides its role as antiviral ribonuclease are described. The VIP multi-action mechanisms recently described for mammals point to its importance for antiviral response. Therefore, VIP characterization and antiviral role in fish is necessary. For that, the AQUAVIP project uses a multidisciplinary approach, with up to date methodologies, to characterize VIP antiviral activity and to take a look on its role during Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss ) innate immune response to virus.
Ultimately, the AQUAVIP project will contribute to the creation of new tools to improve fish immune response and resistance to virus, allowing to better recognize the innate immune mechanisms activated in response to virus with focus on the modulation of the antiviral pathways with close relationship with VIP.
Acknowledgements: This project was financed by national funds through the FCT – Foundation for Science and the Technology, IP, EXPL/CVT-CVT/0458/2021.