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26 results on '"Lobo-Vega, Rebeca"'

1. SARS-CoV-2 Mutant Spectra at Different Depth Levels Reveal an Overwhelming Abundance of Low Frequency Mutations

Author

Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Martínez-González, Brenda [0000-0002-4482-5181], Soria, María Eugenia [0000-0002-4719-3351], Lobo-Vega, Rebeca [0000-0002-4882-6763], Mínguez, Pablo [0000-0003-4099-9421], Llorens, Carlos [0000-0003-1402-4743], Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo [0000-0002-6331-9786], Cortón, Marta [0000-0003-0087-1626], García-Crespo, Carlos [0000-0001-6561-5389], Durán-Pastor, Antoni [0000-0002-4248-0554], Delgado, Soledad [0000-0003-4868-3712], López-Galíndez, Cecilio [0000-0002-2324-9584], Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis [0000-0002-0854-0226], Salar-Vidal, Llanos [0000-0002-3052-0176], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Ayuso, Carmen [0000-0002-9242-7065], Verdaguer, Núria [0000-0001-8826-7129], Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Somovilla, Pilar, Durán-Pastor, Antoni, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Delgado, Soledad, Morán, Federico, López-Galíndez, Cecilio, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban-Muñoz, Mario, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, Perales, Celia, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Martínez-González, Brenda [0000-0002-4482-5181], Soria, María Eugenia [0000-0002-4719-3351], Lobo-Vega, Rebeca [0000-0002-4882-6763], Mínguez, Pablo [0000-0003-4099-9421], Llorens, Carlos [0000-0003-1402-4743], Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo [0000-0002-6331-9786], Cortón, Marta [0000-0003-0087-1626], García-Crespo, Carlos [0000-0001-6561-5389], Durán-Pastor, Antoni [0000-0002-4248-0554], Delgado, Soledad [0000-0003-4868-3712], López-Galíndez, Cecilio [0000-0002-2324-9584], Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis [0000-0002-0854-0226], Salar-Vidal, Llanos [0000-0002-3052-0176], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Ayuso, Carmen [0000-0002-9242-7065], Verdaguer, Núria [0000-0001-8826-7129], Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Somovilla, Pilar, Durán-Pastor, Antoni, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Delgado, Soledad, Morán, Federico, López-Galíndez, Cecilio, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban-Muñoz, Mario, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

Populations of RNA viruses are composed of complex and dynamic mixtures of variant genomes that are termed mutant spectra or mutant clouds. This applies also to SARS-CoV-2, and mutations that are detected at low frequency in an infected individual can be dominant (represented in the consensus sequence) in subsequent variants of interest or variants of concern. Here we briefly review the main conclusions of our work on mutant spectrum characterization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and SARS-CoV-2 at the nucleotide and amino acid levels and address the following two new questions derived from previous results: (i) how is the SARS-CoV-2 mutant and deletion spectrum composition in diagnostic samples, when examined at progressively lower cut-off mutant frequency values in ultra-deep sequencing; (ii) how the frequency distribution of minority amino acid substitutions in SARS-CoV-2 compares with that of HCV sampled also from infected patients. The main conclusions are the following: (i) the number of different mutations found at low frequency in SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra increases dramatically (50- to 100-fold) as the cut-off frequency for mutation detection is lowered from 0.5% to 0.1%, and (ii) that, contrary to HCV, SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra exhibit a deficit of intermediate frequency amino acid substitutions. The possible origin and implications of mutant spectrum differences among RNA viruses are discussed.

Published
2022

2. Aspergillus fumigatus Can Display Persistence to the Fungicidal Drug Voriconazole

Author

Scott, Jennifer, primary, Valero, Clara, additional, Mato-López, Álvaro, additional, Donaldson, Ian J., additional, Roldán, Alejandra, additional, Chown, Harry, additional, Van Rhijn, Norman, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, Gago, Sara, additional, Furukawa, Takanori, additional, Morogovsky, Alma, additional, Ben Ami, Ronen, additional, Bowyer, Paul, additional, Osherov, Nir, additional, Fontaine, Thierry, additional, Goldman, Gustavo H., additional, Mellado, Emilia, additional, Bromley, Michael, additional, and Amich, Jorge, additional

Published
2023
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3. SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra reveal differences between COVID-19 severity categories

Author

Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruíz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Somovilla, Pilar, Durán-Pastor, Antoni, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Delgado, Soledad, Morán, Federico, López-Galíndez, Cecilio, Gómez, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban-Muñoz, Mario, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, Perales, Celia, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Comunidad de Madrid, European Commission, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (España), and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)

Abstract

Trabajo presentado en el XVI Congreso Nacional de Virología, celebrado en Málaga (España) del 06 al 09 de septiembre de 2022., RNA virus populations are composed of complex mixtures of genomes that are termed mutant spectra. SARS-CoV-2 replicates as a viral quasispecies, and mutations that are detected at low frequencies in a host can be dominant in subsequent variants. We have studied mutant spectrum complexities of SARS-CoV-2 populations derived from thirty nasopharyngeal swabs of patients infected during the first wave (April 2020) in the Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz. The patients were classified according to the COVID-19 severity in mild (non-hospitalized), moderate (hospitalized) and exitus (hospitalized with ICU admission and who passed away due to COVID-19). Using ultra-deep sequencing technologies (MiSeq, Illumina), we have examined four amplicons of the nsp12 (polymerase)-coding region and two amplicons of the spike-coding region. Ultra-deep sequencing data were analyzed with different cut-off frequency for mutation detection. Average number of different point mutations, mutations per haplotype and several diversity indices were significantly higher in SARS-CoV-2 isolated from patients who developed mild disease. A feature that we noted in the SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra from diagnostic samples is the remarkable absence of mutations at intermediate frequencies, and an overwhelming abundance of mutations at frequencies lower than 10%. Thus, the decrease of the cut-off frequency for mutation detection from 0.5% to 0.1% revealed an increasement (50- to 100 fold) in the number of different mutations. The significantly higher frequency of mutations in virus from patients displaying mild than moderate or severe disease was maintained with the 0.1% cut- off frequency. To evaluate whether the frequency repertoire of amino acid substitutions differed between SARS-CoV-2 and the well characterized hepatitis C virus (HCV), we performed a comparative study of mutant spectra from infected patients using the same bioinformatics pipelines. HCV did not show the deficit of intermediate frequency substitutions that was observed with SARS-CoV-2. This difference was maintained when two functionally equivalent proteins, the corresponding viral polymerases, were compared. In conclusion, SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra are rich reservoirs of mutants, whose complexity is not uniform among clinical isolates. Virus from patients who developed mild disease may be a source of new variants that may acquire epidemiological relevance., This work was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Science and In-novation (COVID-19 Research Call COV20/00181), and co-financed by European Development Regional Fund ‘A way to achieve Europe’. The work was also supported by grants CSIC-COV19-014 from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), project 525/C/2021 from Fundació La Marató de TV3, PID2020-113888RB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, BFU2017-91384-EXP from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), PI18/00210 and PI21/00139 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2 from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER). C.P., M.C., and P.M. are supported by the Miguel Servet programme of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001, CPII17/00006, and CP16/00116, respectively) co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd (Centro de Investi-gación en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). B.M.-G. is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo) cofinanced by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). R.L.-V. is supported by predoctoral contract PEJD-2019-PRE/BMD-16414 from Comunidad de Madrid. C.G.-C. is sup-ported by predoctoral contract PRE2018-083422 from MCIU. BS was supported by a predoctoral research fellowship (Doctorados Industriales, DI-17-09134) from Spanish MINECO.

Published
2022

4. Amino acid substitutions associated with treatment failure of hepatitis C virus infection

Author

Soria, María Eugenia, García-Crespo, Carlos, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gallego, Isabel, Chen, Qian, García-Cehic, Damir, Llorens-Revull, Meritxell, Briones, Carlos, Gómez, Jordi, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Verdaguer, Núria, Gregori, Josep, Rodríguez-Frías, Francisco, Buti, María, Esteban, Juan Ignacio, Domingo, Esteban, Quer, Josep, Perales, Celia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Global Virus Network, Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (España), and Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)

Abstract

Trabajo presentado en el XVI Congreso Nacional de Virología, celebrado en Málaga (España) del 06 al 09 de septiembre de 2022., Despite the high sustained virological response rates achieved with current directly-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) against hepatitis C virus (HCV), around 2% to 5% of patients do not achieve such a response. Identification of amino acid substitutions associated with treatment failure requires analytical designs, such as subtype-specific ultra-deep sequencing (UDS) methods for HCV characterization and patient management. By deep sequencing analysis of 220 subtyped HCV samples from infected patients who failed therapy, collected from 39 Spanish hospitals, we determined amino acid sequences of the DAA-target proteins NS3, NS5A and NS5B, by UDS of HCV patient samples, in search of resistanceassociated substitutions (RAS). Using this procedure, we have identified six highly represented amino acid substitutions (HRSs) in NS5A and NS5B of HCV, which are not bona fide RAS. They were present frequently in basal and post-treatment virus of patients who failed therapy to different DAA-based therapies. Contrary to several RAS, HRSs belong to the acceptable subset of substitutions according to the PAM250 replacement matrix. Coherently, their mutant frequency, measured by the number of deep sequencing reads within the HCV quasispecies that encode the relevant substitutions, ranged between 90% and 100% in most cases. Also, they have limited predicted disruptive effects on the threedimensional structures of the proteins harboring them. The information on HRSs that will be gathered during sequencing should be relevant not only to help predict treatment outcomes and disease progression but also to further understand HCV population dynamics, which appears much more complex than thought prior to the introduction of deep sequencing., The work at CBMSO was supported by grants SAF2014-52400-R from MINECO, SAF2017-87846-R and BFU2017-91384-EXP MICIU, PI18/00210 from ISCIII, S2013/ABI-2906 (PLATESA) and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2) from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER. C.P. is supported by the Miguel Servet program of the ISCIII (CP14/00121 and CPII19/00001), cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd is funded by ISCIII. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). The work in Barcelona was supported by ISCIII, cofinanced by ERDF grant number PI19/00301 and by the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI) from the MICIU, grant number IDI20151125. Work at CAB was supported by MINECO grant BIO2016-79618R and PID2019-104903RB-I00 (funded by the EU under the FEDER program) and by the Spanish State research agency (AEI) through project number MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”-Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA). Work at IBMB was supported by MICIN grant BIO2017-83906-P (funded by the EU under the FEDER program). C.G.-C. is supported by predoctoral contract PRE2018-083422 from MICIU. B.M.-G. is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo), cofinanced by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE).

Published
2022

5. High SARS-CoV-2 viral load is associated with a worse clinical outcome of COVID-19 disease

Author

Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Banco Santander, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Soria, María Eugenia [0000-0002-4719-3351], Cortón, Marta [0000-0003-0087-1626], Martínez-González, Brenda [0000-0002-4482-5181], Lobo-Vega, Rebeca [0000-0002-4882-6763], Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía [0000-0002-0396-7781], Mínguez, Pablo [0000-0003-4099-9421], Macías-Valcayo, Alicia [0000-0003-3879-0493], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Gadea, Ignacio [0000-0003-4684-7816], Ayuso, Carmen [0000-0002-9242-7065], Perales, Celia [000-0003-1618-1937], Soria, María Eugenia, Cortón, Marta, Martínez-González, Brenda, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, Almoguera, Berta, Mahillo-Fernández, Ignacio, Mínguez, Pablo, Herrero, Antonio, Taracido, Juan Carlos, Macías-Valcayo, Alicia, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Ayuso, Carmen, Perales, Celia, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Banco Santander, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Soria, María Eugenia [0000-0002-4719-3351], Cortón, Marta [0000-0003-0087-1626], Martínez-González, Brenda [0000-0002-4482-5181], Lobo-Vega, Rebeca [0000-0002-4882-6763], Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía [0000-0002-0396-7781], Mínguez, Pablo [0000-0003-4099-9421], Macías-Valcayo, Alicia [0000-0003-3879-0493], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Gadea, Ignacio [0000-0003-4684-7816], Ayuso, Carmen [0000-0002-9242-7065], Perales, Celia [000-0003-1618-1937], Soria, María Eugenia, Cortón, Marta, Martínez-González, Brenda, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, Almoguera, Berta, Mahillo-Fernández, Ignacio, Mínguez, Pablo, Herrero, Antonio, Taracido, Juan Carlos, Macías-Valcayo, Alicia, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Ayuso, Carmen, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

COVID-19 severity and progression are determined by several host and virological factors that may influence the final outcome of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. The objective of this work was to determine a possible association between viral load, obtained from nasopharyngeal swabs, and the severity of the infection in a cohort of 448 SARS-CoV-2-infected patients from a hospital in Madrid during the first outbreak of the pandemic in Spain. To perform this, we clinically classified patients as mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 according to a number of clinical parameters such as hospitalization requirement, need of oxygen therapy, admission to intensive care units and/or death. Also, Ct values were determined using SARS-CoV-2-specific oligonucleotides directed to ORF1ab. Here we report a statistically significant association between viral load and disease severity, a high viral load being associated with worse clinical prognosis, independently of several previously identified risk factors such as age, sex, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and lung disease (asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). The data presented here reinforce viral load as a potential biomarker for predicting disease severity in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. It is also an important parameter in viral evolution since it relates to the numbers and types of variant genomes present in a viral population, a potential determinant of disease progression.

Published
2021

6. SARS-CoV-2 Mutant Spectra at Different Depth Levels Reveal an Overwhelming Abundance of Low Frequency Mutations

Author

Martínez-González, Brenda, primary, Soria, María Eugenia, additional, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, additional, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, Mínguez, Pablo, additional, de la Fuente, Lorena, additional, Llorens, Carlos, additional, Soriano, Beatriz, additional, Ramos-Ruíz, Ricardo, additional, Cortón, Marta, additional, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, additional, García-Crespo, Carlos, additional, Somovilla, Pilar, additional, Durán-Pastor, Antoni, additional, Gallego, Isabel, additional, de Ávila, Ana Isabel, additional, Delgado, Soledad, additional, Morán, Federico, additional, López-Galíndez, Cecilio, additional, Gómez, Jordi, additional, Enjuanes, Luis, additional, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, additional, Esteban-Muñoz, Mario, additional, Esteban, Jaime, additional, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, additional, Gadea, Ignacio, additional, Ayuso, Carmen, additional, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, additional, Verdaguer, Nuria, additional, Domingo, Esteban, additional, and Perales, Celia, additional

Published
2022
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7. Aspergillus fumigatuscan display persistence to the fungicidal drug voriconazole

Author

Scott, Jennifer, primary, Valero, Clara, additional, Mato-López, Álvaro, additional, Donaldson, Ian J., additional, Roldán, Alejandra, additional, Chown, Harry, additional, Van Rhijn, Norman, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, Gago, Sara, additional, Furukawa, Takanori, additional, Morogovsky, Alma, additional, Ami, Ronen Ben, additional, Bowyer, Paul, additional, Osherov, Nir, additional, Fontaine, Thierry, additional, Goldman, Gustavo H., additional, Mellado, Emilia, additional, Bromley, Michael, additional, and Amich, Jorge, additional

Published
2022
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8. Amino acid substitutions associated with treatment failure of hepatitis C virus infection

Author

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Global Virus Network, Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Soria, María Eugenia, García-Crespo, Carlos, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gallego, Isabel, Chen, Qian, García-Cehic, Damir, Llorens-Revull, Meritxell, Briones, Carlos, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Verdaguer, Núria, Gregori, Josep, Rodríguez-Frías, Francisco, Buti, María, Esteban, Juan Ignacio, Domingo, Esteban, Quer, Josep, Perales, Celia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Global Virus Network, Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Soria, María Eugenia, García-Crespo, Carlos, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gallego, Isabel, Chen, Qian, García-Cehic, Damir, Llorens-Revull, Meritxell, Briones, Carlos, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Verdaguer, Núria, Gregori, Josep, Rodríguez-Frías, Francisco, Buti, María, Esteban, Juan Ignacio, Domingo, Esteban, Quer, Josep, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

Despite the high sustained virological response rates achieved with current directly-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) against hepatitis C virus (HCV), around 2% to 5% of patients do not achieve such a response. Identification of amino acid substitutions associated with treatment failure requires analytical designs, such as subtype-specific ultra-deep sequencing (UDS) methods for HCV characterization and patient management. By deep sequencing analysis of 220 subtyped HCV samples from infected patients who failed therapy, collected from 39 Spanish hospitals, we determined amino acid sequences of the DAA-target proteins NS3, NS5A and NS5B, by UDS of HCV patient samples, in search of resistanceassociated substitutions (RAS). Using this procedure, we have identified six highly represented amino acid substitutions (HRSs) in NS5A and NS5B of HCV, which are not bona fide RAS. They were present frequently in basal and post-treatment virus of patients who failed therapy to different DAA-based therapies. Contrary to several RAS, HRSs belong to the acceptable subset of substitutions according to the PAM250 replacement matrix. Coherently, their mutant frequency, measured by the number of deep sequencing reads within the HCV quasispecies that encode the relevant substitutions, ranged between 90% and 100% in most cases. Also, they have limited predicted disruptive effects on the threedimensional structures of the proteins harboring them. The information on HRSs that will be gathered during sequencing should be relevant not only to help predict treatment outcomes and disease progression but also to further understand HCV population dynamics, which appears much more complex than thought prior to the introduction of deep sequencing.

Published
2022

9. SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra reveal differences between COVID-19 severity categories

Author

Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Comunidad de Madrid, European Commission, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Somovilla, Pilar, Durán-Pastor, Antoni, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Delgado, Soledad, Morán, Federico, López-Galíndez, Cecilio, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban-Muñoz, Mario, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, Perales, Celia, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Comunidad de Madrid, European Commission, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Somovilla, Pilar, Durán-Pastor, Antoni, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Delgado, Soledad, Morán, Federico, López-Galíndez, Cecilio, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban-Muñoz, Mario, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

RNA virus populations are composed of complex mixtures of genomes that are termed mutant spectra. SARS-CoV-2 replicates as a viral quasispecies, and mutations that are detected at low frequencies in a host can be dominant in subsequent variants. We have studied mutant spectrum complexities of SARS-CoV-2 populations derived from thirty nasopharyngeal swabs of patients infected during the first wave (April 2020) in the Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz. The patients were classified according to the COVID-19 severity in mild (non-hospitalized), moderate (hospitalized) and exitus (hospitalized with ICU admission and who passed away due to COVID-19). Using ultra-deep sequencing technologies (MiSeq, Illumina), we have examined four amplicons of the nsp12 (polymerase)-coding region and two amplicons of the spike-coding region. Ultra-deep sequencing data were analyzed with different cut-off frequency for mutation detection. Average number of different point mutations, mutations per haplotype and several diversity indices were significantly higher in SARS-CoV-2 isolated from patients who developed mild disease. A feature that we noted in the SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra from diagnostic samples is the remarkable absence of mutations at intermediate frequencies, and an overwhelming abundance of mutations at frequencies lower than 10%. Thus, the decrease of the cut-off frequency for mutation detection from 0.5% to 0.1% revealed an increasement (50- to 100 fold) in the number of different mutations. The significantly higher frequency of mutations in virus from patients displaying mild than moderate or severe disease was maintained with the 0.1% cut- off frequency. To evaluate whether the frequency repertoire of amino acid substitutions differed between SARS-CoV-2 and the well characterized hepatitis C virus (HCV), we performed a comparative study of mutant spectra from infected patients using the same bioinformatics pipelines. HCV did not show the deficit of intermediat

Published
2022

10. SARS-CoV-2 Point Mutation and Deletion Spectra and Their Association with Different Disease Outcomes

Author

Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo [0000-0002-6331-9786], Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis [0000-0002-0854-0226], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Verdaguer, Núria [0000-0001-8826-7129], Domingo, Esteban [0000-0002-0573-1676], Perales, Celia [0000-0003-1618-1937], Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, Perales, Celia, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo [0000-0002-6331-9786], Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis [0000-0002-0854-0226], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Verdaguer, Núria [0000-0001-8826-7129], Domingo, Esteban [0000-0002-0573-1676], Perales, Celia [0000-0003-1618-1937], Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

Mutant spectra of RNA viruses are important to understand viral pathogenesis and response to selective pressures. There is a need to characterize the complexity of mutant spectra in coronaviruses sampled from infected patients. In particular, the possible relationship between SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectrum complexity and disease associations has not been established. In the present study, we report an ultradeep sequencing (UDS) analysis of the mutant spectrum of amplicons from the nsp12 (polymerase)- and spike (S)-coding regions of 30 nasopharyngeal isolates (diagnostic samples) of SARS-CoV-2 of the first COVID-19 pandemic wave (Madrid, Spain, April 2020) classified according to the severity of ensuing COVID-19. Low-frequency mutations and deletions, counted relative to the consensus sequence of the corresponding isolate, were overwhelmingly abundant. We show that the average number of different point mutations, mutations per haplotype, and several diversity indices was significantly higher in SARS-CoV-2 isolated from patients who developed mild disease than in those associated with moderate or severe disease (exitus). No such bias was observed with RNA deletions. Location of amino acid substitutions in the three-dimensional structures of nsp12 (polymerase) and S suggest significant structural or functional effects. Thus, patients who develop mild symptoms may be a richer source of genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 than patients with moderate or severe COVID-19.

Published
2022

11. SARS-CoV-2 Point Mutation and Deletion Spectra, and Their Association with Different Disease Outcome

Author

Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Comunidad de Madrid, Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo [0000-0002-6331-9786], Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis [0000-0002-0854-0226], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Verdaguer, Núria [0000-0001-8826-7129], Domingo, Esteban [0000-0002-0573-1676], Perales, Celia [0000-0003-1618-1937], Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, Perales, Celia, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Comunidad de Madrid, Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo [0000-0002-6331-9786], Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis [0000-0002-0854-0226], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Verdaguer, Núria [0000-0001-8826-7129], Domingo, Esteban [0000-0002-0573-1676], Perales, Celia [0000-0003-1618-1937], Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Fuente, Lorena de la, Llorens, Carlos, Soriano, Beatriz, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, García-Crespo, Carlos, Gallego, Isabel, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ayuso, Carmen, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Verdaguer, Núria, Domingo, Esteban, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

Mutant spectra of RNA viruses are important to understand viral pathogenesis, and response to selective pressures. There is a need to characterize the complexity of mutant spectra in coronaviruses sampled from infected patients. In particular, the possible relationship between SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectrum complexity and disease associations has not been established. In the present study, we report an ultra-deep sequencing (UDS) analysis of the mutant spectrum of amplicons from the nsp12 (polymerase)- and spike (S)-coding regions of thirty nasopharyngeal isolates (diagnostic samples) of SARS-CoV-2 of the first COVID-19 pandemic wave (Madrid, Spain, April 2020) classified according to the severity of ensuing COVID-19. Low frequency mutations and deletions, counted relative to the consensus sequence of the corresponding isolate, were overwhelmingly abundant. We show that the average number of different point mutations, mutations per haplotype and several diversity indices was significantly higher in SARS-CoV-2 isolated from patients who developed mild disease than in those associated with moderate or severe disease (exitus). No such bias was observed with RNA deletions. Location of amino acid substitutions in the three dimensional structures of nsp12 (polymerase) and S suggest significant structural or functional effects. Thus, patients who develop mild symptoms may be a richer source of genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 than patients with moderate or severe COVID-19.

Published
2022

12. SARS-CoV-2 Point Mutation and Deletion Spectra and Their Association with Different Disease Outcomes

Author

Martínez-González, Brenda, primary, Soria, María Eugenia, additional, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, additional, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, Mínguez, Pablo, additional, de la Fuente, Lorena, additional, Llorens, Carlos, additional, Soriano, Beatriz, additional, Ramos, Ricardo, additional, Cortón, Marta, additional, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, additional, García-Crespo, Carlos, additional, Gallego, Isabel, additional, de Ávila, Ana Isabel, additional, Gómez, Jordi, additional, Enjuanes, Luis, additional, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, additional, Esteban, Jaime, additional, Fernandez-Roblas, Ricardo, additional, Gadea, Ignacio, additional, Ayuso, Carmen, additional, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, additional, Verdaguer, Nuria, additional, Domingo, Esteban, additional, and Perales, Celia, additional

Published
2022
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13. High SARS-CoV-2 viral load is associated with a worse clinical outcome of COVID-19 disease

Author

Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Comunidad de Madrid, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Soria, María Eugenia [0000-0002-4719-3351], Lobo-Vega, Rebeca [0000-0002-4882-6763], Perales, Celia [0000-0003-1618-1937], Soria, María Eugenia, Cortón, Marta, Martínez-González, Brenda, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, Almoguera, Berta, Mahillo-Fernández, Ignacio, Mínguez, Pablo, Herrero, Antonio, Taracido, Juan Carlos, Macías-Valcayo, Alicia, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Ayuso, Carmen, Perales, Celia, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Comunidad de Madrid, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Soria, María Eugenia [0000-0002-4719-3351], Lobo-Vega, Rebeca [0000-0002-4882-6763], Perales, Celia [0000-0003-1618-1937], Soria, María Eugenia, Cortón, Marta, Martínez-González, Brenda, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, Almoguera, Berta, Mahillo-Fernández, Ignacio, Mínguez, Pablo, Herrero, Antonio, Taracido, Juan Carlos, Macías-Valcayo, Alicia, Esteban, Jaime, Fernández-Roblas, Ricardo, Gadea, Ignacio, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, Ayuso, Carmen, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

COVID-19 severity and progression are determined by several host and virological factors that may influence the final outcome of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. The objective of this work is to determine a possible association between the viral load, obtained from nasopharyngeal swabs, and the severity of the infection in a cohort of 448 SARS-CoV-2-infected patients from a hospital in Madrid during the first outbreak of the pandemic in Spain. To perform this, we have clinically classified patients as mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 according to a number of clinical parameters such as hospitalization requirement, need of oxygen therapy, admission to intensive care units and/or exitus. Here we report a statistically significant correlation between viral load and disease severity, being high viral load associated with worse clinical prognosis, independently of several previously identified risk factors such as age, sex, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and lung disease (asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). The data presented here reinforce the viral load as a potential biomarker for predicting disease severity in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. It is also an important parameter in viral evolution since it relates to the numbers and types of variant genomes present in a viral population, a potential determinant of disease progression.

Published
2020

15. High SARS-CoV-2 viral load is associated with a worse clinical outcome of COVID-19 disease

Author

Soria, María Eugenia, primary, Cortón, Marta, additional, Martínez-González, Brenda, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, additional, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, additional, Almoguera, Berta, additional, Mahillo, Ignacio, additional, Mínguez, Pablo, additional, Herrero, Antonio, additional, Taracido, Juan Carlos, additional, Macías-Valcayo, Alicia, additional, Esteban, Jaime, additional, Fernandez-Roblas, Ricardo, additional, Gadea, Ignacio, additional, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, additional, Ayuso, Carmen, additional, and Perales, Celia, additional

Published
2021
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16. Population Disequilibrium as Promoter of Adaptive Explorations in Hepatitis C Virus

Author

García-Crespo, Carlos, Gallego, Isabel, Soria, María Eugenia, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Moreno, Elena, Gómez, Jordi, Briones, Carlos, Gregori, Josep, Quer, Josep, Domingo, Esteban, Perales, Celia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Commission, Global Virus Network, CSIC-INTA - Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Banco Santander, and Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)

Subjects
hepatitis C virus, universal vaccines, sequence space, mutational waves, residue conservation, COVID-19, Antiviral drug resistance, viral quasispecies
Abstract

Replication of RNA viruses is characterized by exploration of sequence space which facilitates their adaptation to changing environments. It is generally accepted that such exploration takes place mainly in response to positive selection, and that further diversification is boosted by modifications of virus population size, particularly bottleneck events. Our recent results with hepatitis C virus (HCV) have shown that the expansion in sequence space of a viral clone continues despite prolonged replication in a stable cell culture environment. Diagnosis of the expansion was based on the quantification of diversity indices, the occurrence of intra-population mutational waves (variations in mutant frequencies), and greater individual residue variations in mutant spectra than those anticipated from sequence alignments in data banks. In the present report, we review our previous results, and show additionally that mutational waves in amplicons from the NS5A-NS5B-coding region are equally prominent during HCV passage in the absence or presence of the mutagenic nucleotide analogues favipiravir or ribavirin. In addition, by extending our previous analysis to amplicons of the NS3- and NS5A-coding region, we provide further evidence of the incongruence between amino acid conservation scores in mutant spectra from infected patients and in the Los Alamos National Laboratory HCV data banks. We hypothesize that these observations have as a common origin a permanent state of HCV population disequilibrium even upon extensive viral replication in the absence of external selective constraints or changes in population size. Such a persistent disequilibrium¿revealed by the changing composition of the mutant spectrum¿may facilitate finding alternative mutational pathways for HCV antiviral resistance. The possible significance of our model for other genetically variable viruses is discussed. The work at CBMSO was supported by grants SAF2014-52400-R from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), SAF2017-87846-R and BFU2017-91384-EXP from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), PI18/00210 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, S2013/ABI-2906 (PLATESA from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER), and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2 from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER). C.P. is supported by the Miguel Servet program of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001), cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd (Centro de Investigación en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). The work in Barcelona was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Grant No. PI19/00301 and by the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI) from the MICIU, Grant No. IDI-20200297. Work at CAB was supported by MINECO grant BIO2016-79618R and PID2019-104903RB-I00 (funded by the EU under the FEDER program) and by the Spanish State research agency (AEI) through project number MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”-Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA). C.G.-C. is supported by predoctoral contract PRE2018-083422 from MCIU. B.M.-G. is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo), cofinanced by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE).

Published
2021

17. Mutation rates, mutation frequencies, and proofreading-repair activities in rna virus genetics

Author

Domingo, Esteban, García-Crespo, Carlos, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Perales, Celia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Comunidad de Madrid, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, and Banco Santander

Subjects
Quasispecies, RNA virus, exonuclease, SARS-CoV-2, Virus diversification, Error catastrophe
Abstract

The error rate displayed during template copying to produce viral RNA progeny is a biologically relevant parameter of the replication complexes of viruses. It has consequences for virus–host interactions, and it represents the first step in the diversification of viruses in nature. Measurements during infections and with purified viral polymerases indicate that mutation rates for RNA viruses are in the range of 10 to 10 copying errors per nucleotide incorporated into the nascent RNA product. Although viruses are thought to exploit high error rates for adaptation to changing environments, some of them possess misincorporation correcting activities. One of them is a proofreading-repair 3 to 5 exonuclease present in coronaviruses that may decrease the error rate during replication. Here we review experimental evidence and models of information maintenance that explain why elevated mutation rates have been preserved during the evolution of RNA (and some DNA) viruses. The models also offer an interpretation of why error correction mechanisms have evolved to maintain the stability of genetic information carried out by large viral RNA genomes such as the coronaviruses. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), grant number SAF2014-52400-R, SAF2017-87846-R and BFU2017-91384-EXP from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), PI18/00210 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, S2013/ABI-2906 (PLATESA from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER), and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2 from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER). C.P. is supported by the Miguel Servet program of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001), cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd (Centro de Investigación en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged

Published
2021

18. Mutation rates, mutation frequencies, and proofreading-repair activities in rna virus genetics

Author

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Comunidad de Madrid, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Domingo, Esteban, García-Crespo, Carlos, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Perales, Celia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Comunidad de Madrid, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Domingo, Esteban, García-Crespo, Carlos, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

The error rate displayed during template copying to produce viral RNA progeny is a biologically relevant parameter of the replication complexes of viruses. It has consequences for virus–host interactions, and it represents the first step in the diversification of viruses in nature. Measurements during infections and with purified viral polymerases indicate that mutation rates for RNA viruses are in the range of 10 to 10 copying errors per nucleotide incorporated into the nascent RNA product. Although viruses are thought to exploit high error rates for adaptation to changing environments, some of them possess misincorporation correcting activities. One of them is a proofreading-repair 3 to 5 exonuclease present in coronaviruses that may decrease the error rate during replication. Here we review experimental evidence and models of information maintenance that explain why elevated mutation rates have been preserved during the evolution of RNA (and some DNA) viruses. The models also offer an interpretation of why error correction mechanisms have evolved to maintain the stability of genetic information carried out by large viral RNA genomes such as the coronaviruses.

Published
2021

19. Population Disequilibrium as Promoter of Adaptive Explorations in Hepatitis C Virus

Author

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Commission, Global Virus Network, CSIC-INTA - Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Banco Santander, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), García-Crespo, Carlos, Gallego, Isabel, Soria, María Eugenia, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Moreno, Elena, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Briones, Carlos, Gregori, Josep, Quer, Josep, Domingo, Esteban, Perales, Celia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Commission, Global Virus Network, CSIC-INTA - Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Banco Santander, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), García-Crespo, Carlos, Gallego, Isabel, Soria, María Eugenia, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Moreno, Elena, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Briones, Carlos, Gregori, Josep, Quer, Josep, Domingo, Esteban, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

Replication of RNA viruses is characterized by exploration of sequence space which facilitates their adaptation to changing environments. It is generally accepted that such exploration takes place mainly in response to positive selection, and that further diversification is boosted by modifications of virus population size, particularly bottleneck events. Our recent results with hepatitis C virus (HCV) have shown that the expansion in sequence space of a viral clone continues despite prolonged replication in a stable cell culture environment. Diagnosis of the expansion was based on the quantification of diversity indices, the occurrence of intra-population mutational waves (variations in mutant frequencies), and greater individual residue variations in mutant spectra than those anticipated from sequence alignments in data banks. In the present report, we review our previous results, and show additionally that mutational waves in amplicons from the NS5A-NS5B-coding region are equally prominent during HCV passage in the absence or presence of the mutagenic nucleotide analogues favipiravir or ribavirin. In addition, by extending our previous analysis to amplicons of the NS3- and NS5A-coding region, we provide further evidence of the incongruence between amino acid conservation scores in mutant spectra from infected patients and in the Los Alamos National Laboratory HCV data banks. We hypothesize that these observations have as a common origin a permanent state of HCV population disequilibrium even upon extensive viral replication in the absence of external selective constraints or changes in population size. Such a persistent disequilibrium¿revealed by the changing composition of the mutant spectrum¿may facilitate finding alternative mutational pathways for HCV antiviral resistance. The possible significance of our model for other genetically variable viruses is discussed.

Published
2021

20. Population Disequilibrium as Promoter of Adaptive Explorations in Hepatitis C Virus

Author

García-Crespo, Carlos, primary, Gallego, Isabel, additional, Soria, María Eugenia, additional, de Ávila, Ana Isabel, additional, Martínez-González, Brenda, additional, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, Moreno, Elena, additional, Gómez, Jordi, additional, Briones, Carlos, additional, Gregori, Josep, additional, Quer, Josep, additional, Domingo, Esteban, additional, and Perales, Celia, additional

Published
2021
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21. Amino Acid Substitutions Associated with Treatment Failure for Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Author

Soria, María Eugenia, primary, García-Crespo, Carlos, additional, Martínez-González, Brenda, additional, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, de Ávila, Ana Isabel, additional, Gallego, Isabel, additional, Chen, Qian, additional, García-Cehic, Damir, additional, Llorens-Revull, Meritxell, additional, Briones, Carlos, additional, Gómez, Jordi, additional, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, additional, Verdaguer, Nuria, additional, Gregori, Josep, additional, Rodríguez-Frías, Francisco, additional, Buti, María, additional, Esteban, Juan Ignacio, additional, Domingo, Esteban, additional, Quer, Josep, additional, and Perales, Celia, additional

Published
2020
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22. High SARS-CoV-2 viral load is associated with a worse clinical outcome of COVID-19 disease

Author

Soria, María Eugenia, primary, Cortón, Marta, additional, Martínez-González, Brenda, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, additional, López-Rodríguez, Rosario, additional, Almoguera, Berta, additional, Mahillo, Ignacio, additional, Mínguez, Pablo, additional, Herrero, Antonio, additional, Taracido, Juan Carlos, additional, Macías-Valcayo, Alicia, additional, Esteban, Jaime, additional, Fernandez-Roblas, Ricardo, additional, Gadea, Ignacio, additional, Ruíz-Hornillos, Javier, additional, Ayuso, Carmen, additional, and Perales, Celia, additional

Published
2020
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23. Amino acid substitutions associated with treatment failure of hepatitis C virus infection

Author

Soria, María Eugenia, primary, García-Crespo, Carlos, additional, Martínez-Gónzalez, Brenda, additional, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, additional, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, additional, de Ávila, Ana Isabel, additional, Gallego, Isabel, additional, Chen, Qian, additional, García-Cehic, Damir, additional, Llorens-Revull, Meritxell, additional, Briones, Carlos, additional, Gómez, Jordi, additional, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, additional, Verdaguer, Nuria, additional, Gregori, Josep, additional, Rodríguez-Frías, Francisco, additional, Buti, María, additional, Esteban, Juan Ignacio, additional, Domingo, Esteban, additional, Quer, Josep, additional, and Perales, Celia, additional

Published
2020
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24. Amino acid substitutions associated with treatment failure for Hepatitis C virus infection

Author

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, CSIC-INTA - Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Soria, María Eugenia, García-Crespo, Carlos, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gallego, Isabel, Chen, Qian, García-Cehic, Damir, Llorens-Revull, Meritxell, Briones, Carlos, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Verdaguer, Núria, Gregori, Josep, Rodríguez-Frías, Francisco, Buti, María, Esteban, Juan Ignacio, Domingo, Esteban, Quer, Josep, Perales, Celia, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, CSIC-INTA - Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Soria, María Eugenia, García-Crespo, Carlos, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Ávila, Ana Isabel de, Gallego, Isabel, Chen, Qian, García-Cehic, Damir, Llorens-Revull, Meritxell, Briones, Carlos, Gómez-Castilla, Jordi, Ferrer-Orta, Cristina, Verdaguer, Núria, Gregori, Josep, Rodríguez-Frías, Francisco, Buti, María, Esteban, Juan Ignacio, Domingo, Esteban, Quer, Josep, and Perales, Celia

Abstract

Despite the high virological response rates achieved with current directly acting antiviral agents (DAAs) against hepatitis C virus (HCV), around 2% to 5% of treated patients do not achieve a sustained viral response. The identification of amino acid substitutions associated with treatment failure requires analytical designs, such as subtype-specific ultradeep sequencing (UDS) methods, for HCV characterization and patient management. Using this procedure, we have identified six highly represented amino acid substitutions (HRSs) in NS5A and NS5B of HCV, which are not bona fide resistance-associated substitutions (RAS), from 220 patients who failed therapy. They were present frequently in basal and posttreatment virus of patients who failed different DAA-based therapies. Contrary to several RAS, HRSs belong to the acceptable subset of substitutions according to the PAM250 replacement matrix. Their mutant frequency, measured by the number of deep sequencing reads within the HCV quasispecies that encode the relevant substitutions, ranged between 90% and 100% in most cases. They also have limited predicted disruptive effects on the three-dimensional structures of the proteins harboring them. Possible mechanisms of HRS origin and dominance, as well as their potential predictive value for treatment response, are discussed.

Published
2020

25. SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra at different depth levels reveal an overwhelming abundance of low frequency mutations

Author

Brenda Martínez-González, María Eugenia Soria, Lucía Vázquez-Sirvent, Cristina Ferrer-Orta, Rebeca Lobo-Vega, Pablo Mínguez, Lorena de la Fuente, Carlos Llorens, Beatriz Soriano, Ricardo Ramos-Ruíz, Marta Cortón, Rosario López-Rodríguez, Carlos García-Crespo, Pilar Somovilla, Antoni Durán-Pastor, Isabel Gallego, Ana Isabel de Ávila, Soledad Delgado, Federico Morán, Cecilio López-Galíndez, Jordi Gómez, Luis Enjuanes, Llanos Salar-Vidal, Mario Esteban-Muñoz, Jaime Esteban, Ricardo Fernández-Roblas, Ignacio Gadea, Carmen Ayuso, Javier Ruíz-Hornillos, Nuria Verdaguer, Esteban Domingo, Celia Perales, UAM. Departamento de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública y Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Fundación Ramón Areces, Banco Santander, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Martínez-González, Brenda, Soria, María Eugenia, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Mínguez, Pablo, Llorens, Carlos, Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo, Cortón, Marta, García-Crespo, Carlos, Durán-Pastor, Antoni, Delgado, Soledad, López-Galíndez, Cecilio, Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis, Salar-Vidal, Llanos, Esteban, Jaime, Ayuso, Carmen, Verdaguer, Núria, Martínez-González, Brenda [0000-0002-4482-5181], Soria, María Eugenia [0000-0002-4719-3351], Lobo-Vega, Rebeca [0000-0002-4882-6763], Mínguez, Pablo [0000-0003-4099-9421], Llorens, Carlos [0000-0003-1402-4743], Ramos-Ruiz, Ricardo [0000-0002-6331-9786], Cortón, Marta [0000-0003-0087-1626], García-Crespo, Carlos [0000-0001-6561-5389], Durán-Pastor, Antoni [0000-0002-4248-0554], Delgado, Soledad [0000-0003-4868-3712], López-Galíndez, Cecilio [0000-0002-2324-9584], Enjuanes Sánchez, Luis [0000-0002-0854-0226], Salar-Vidal, Llanos [0000-0002-3052-0176], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Ayuso, Carmen [0000-0002-9242-7065], and Verdaguer, Núria [0000-0001-8826-7129]

Subjects
Microbiology (medical), ultra-deep sequencing, Ultra-deep sequencing, RNA virus, COVID-19, viral quasispecies, mutation, deletion, nsp12 (polymerase), spike, General Immunology and Microbiology, Medicina, Spike, Deletion, Infectious Diseases, Mutation, Immunology and Allergy, Molecular Biology
Abstract

Populations of RNA viruses are composed of complex and dynamic mixtures of variant genomes that are termed mutant spectra or mutant clouds. This applies also to SARS-CoV-2, and mutations that are detected at low frequency in an infected individual can be dominant (represented in the consensus sequence) in subsequent variants of interest or variants of concern. Here we briefly review the main conclusions of our work on mutant spectrum characterization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and SARS-CoV-2 at the nucleotide and amino acid levels and address the following two new questions derived from previous results: (i) how is the SARS-CoV-2 mutant and deletion spectrum composition in diagnostic samples, when examined at progressively lower cut-off mutant frequency values in ultra-deep sequencing; (ii) how the frequency distribution of minority amino acid substitutions in SARS-CoV-2 compares with that of HCV sampled also from infected patients. The main conclusions are the following: (i) the number of different mutations found at low frequency in SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra increases dramatically (50- to 100-fold) as the cut-off frequency for mutation detection is lowered from 0.5% to 0.1%, and (ii) that, contrary to HCV, SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra exhibit a deficit of intermediate frequency amino acid substitutions. The possible origin and implications of mutant spectrum differences among RNA viruses are discussed., This work was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (COVID-19 Research Call COV20/00181), and co-financed by European Development Regional Fund ‘A way to achieve Europe’. The work was also supported by grants CSIC-COV19-014 from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), project 525/C/2021 from Fundació La Marató de TV3, PID2020-113888RB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, BFU2017-91384-EXP from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), PI18/00210 and PI21/00139 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2 from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER). C.P., M.C., and P.M. are supported by the Miguel Servet programme of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001, CPII17/00006, and CP16/00116, respectively) cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd (Centro de Investigación en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). B.M.-G. is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo) cofinanced by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). R.L.-V. is supported by predoctoral contract PEJD-2019-PRE/BMD-16414 from Comunidad de Madrid. C.G.-C. is supported by predoctoral contract PRE2018-083422 from MCIU. P.S. is supported by postdoctoral contract “Margarita Salas” CA1/RSUE/2021 from MCIU. B.S. was supported by a predoctoral research fellowship (Doctorados Industriales, DI-17-09134) from Spanish MINECO.

Published
2022
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26. High SARS-CoV-2 viral load is associated with a worse clinical outcome of COVID-19 disease

Author

Ignacio Gadea, Javier Ruiz-Hornillos, Rebeca Lobo-Vega, Jaime Esteban, Carmen Ayuso, A. Herrero, Marta Corton, Juan Carlos Taracido, Pablo Minguez, Ricardo Fernández-Roblas, Rosario López-Rodríguez, Ignacio Mahillo, María Eugenia Soria, Alicia Macías-Valcayo, Berta Almoguera, Lucía Vázquez-Sirvent, Brenda Martínez-González, Celia Perales, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), Fundación Ramón Areces, Fundación Banco Santander, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Comunidad de Madrid, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Soria, María Eugenia [0000-0002-4719-3351], Cortón, Marta [0000-0003-0087-1626], Martínez-González, Brenda [0000-0002-4482-5181], Lobo-Vega, Rebeca [0000-0002-4882-6763], Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía [0000-0002-0396-7781], Mínguez, Pablo [0000-0003-4099-9421], Macías-Valcayo, Alicia [0000-0003-3879-0493], Esteban, Jaime [0000-0002-8971-3167], Gadea, Ignacio [0000-0003-4684-7816], Ayuso, Carmen [0000-0002-9242-7065], Perales, Celia [000-0003-1618-1937], Banco Santander, Perales, Celia [0000-0003-1618-1937], Soria, María Eugenia, Lobo-Vega, Rebeca, Perales, Celia, Cortón, Marta, Martínez-González, Brenda, Vázquez-Sirvent, Lucía, Mínguez, Pablo, Macías-Valcayo, Alicia, Esteban, Jaime, Gadea, Ignacio, and Ayuso, Carmen

Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty, education.field_of_study, business.industry, viruses, Population, Short Communications, Outbreak, COVID-19, Disease, medicine.disease, viral load, Risk factors, Diabetes mellitus, Intensive care, Internal medicine, Cohort, medicine, risk factors, General Materials Science, Viral load, education, business, Asthma
Abstract

Publisher's version disponible en: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/257116, COVID-19 severity and progression are determined by several host and virological factors that may influence the final outcome of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. The objective of this work is to determine a possible association between the viral load, obtained from nasopharyngeal swabs, and the severity of the infection in a cohort of 448 SARS-CoV-2-infected patients from a hospital in Madrid during the first outbreak of the pandemic in Spain. To perform this, we have clinically classified patients as mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 according to a number of clinical parameters such as hospitalization requirement, need of oxygen therapy, admission to intensive care units and/or exitus. Here we report a statistically significant correlation between viral load and disease severity, being high viral load associated with worse clinical prognosis, independently of several previously identified risk factors such as age, sex, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and lung disease (asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). The data presented here reinforce the viral load as a potential biomarker for predicting disease severity in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. It is also an important parameter in viral evolution since it relates to the numbers and types of variant genomes present in a viral population, a potential determinant of disease progression., This work was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (COVID-19 Research Call COV20/00181) co-financed by European Development Regional Fund (A way to achieve Europe). The work was also supported by grants CSIC-COV19-014 from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), BFU2017-91384-EXP from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (MICIU), PI18/00210 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III. C.P., M.C. and P.M. are supported by the Miguel Servet program of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001, CPII17/00006 and CP16/00116, respectively) cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd (Centro de Investigacion en Red de Enfermedades Hepaticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundacion Ramon Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). B. M.-G. is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo) cofinanced by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). R. L.-V. is supported by predoctoral contract PEJD-2019-PRE/BMD-16414 from Comunidad de Madrid. R L-R is sponsored by the IIS-Fundacion Jimenez Diaz-UAM Genomic Medicine Chair.

Published
2021

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