Alterations of the Plasma Membrane Caused by Murine Polyomavirus Proliferation: An Electrorotation Study

Abstract

In this report we investigate the alterations of the dielectric properties of the plasma membrane caused by the infection of cultured fibroblasts with murine polyomavirus. The approach consists in a well-established dielectric spectroscopy technique, electrorotation, which has been successfully used in our laboratory to study the alterations of the plasma membrane of cells exposed to various forms of stress. The response to viral proliferation was time dependent as shown by evaluation of the de novo synthesis of viral DNA. This response was paralleled by gradual damage of the membrane evidenced by alteration of the dielectric parameters, specific capacitance and conductance. The electrorotation results show a reduced effect on the dielectric properties of the membrane when infection is carried out in the presence of a natural oil (MEX). In this case a drastic reduction in viral DNA synthesis was also monitored, thus indicating an antiviral action of this product.

Monitoring lentiviral vector production kinetics using online permittivity measurements

“…More recent studies found, however, that C M changes after the viral infection and overexpression of cation channels [23,64]. Therefore, it seems to be particularly affected by processes involving the cellular membrane properties, such as exocytosis (loss of microvilli), viral release, and apoptosis [42,65].…”

“…Reductions in C M of 40-60% were reported for several cell types after infection with different viruses, such as the herpes simplex virus and polyomavirus. C M is affected as early as a few hours post-infection as a result of the loss of membrane blebs and a more uniform membrane conformation or a membrane surface with more irregularities [22,23].…”

“…These physiological changes, when taking place in the plasma membrane in particular, directly affect the dielectric properties of the cells. Several studies describe the monitoring of the effects caused by viral infection using techniques such as electrorotation on single cells [22,23]. Yet, to date, the application of these findings, i.e., the use of permittivity measurements in virus or viral vector production, is limited to BEV production.…”

Isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells by Dielectrophoresis

“…These methods easily distinguished between viable and non-viable cells [34] and were used to detect differences between different cell types [35,36,37,38] and observe responses of cells to many types of stimuli including exposure to toxicants [39,40,41], viral [42,43] and parasitic [44,45,46] infections, and treatment with cell differentiating- [47,48,49,50,51], mitogenic- [52], and apoptosis-inducing- [41,53,54,55] agents, for example. Electrokinetic methods were honed as important tools for analyzing cell physical properties [56,57,58,59].…”

Improvements in the extraction of cell electric properties from their electrorotation spectrum

“…Thus, last ROT studies concern the exploration of those measurement tools [14] while no major improvements have been made in the parameter identification procedures from a decade [15]. However, several numerical tools have been recently developed to perform sensitivity analysis in various research areas [16] and further investigations are now possible to evaluate the respective weights of the different parameters involved in ROT.…”