PNNL

Abstract

Human noroviruses (NoV) cause severe, self-limiting gastroenteritis that typically lasts 24 - 48 hours. The true nature of NoV pathogenesis remains unknown due to the lack of suitable tissue culture or animal models. Here we show, for the first time, that NoV can infect and replicate in an organoid, three-dimensional (3-D) model of human small intestinal epithelium (INT-407). Cellular differentiation for this model was achieved by growing the cells in 3-D on porous collagen I-coated microcarrier beads under conditions of physiological fluid shear in rotating wall vessel bioreactors. Microscopy, PCR, and fluorescent in-situ hybridization were employed to provide evidence of NoV infection. CPE and norovirus RNA was detected at each of the five cell passages for both genogroup I and II viruses. Our results demonstrate that the highly differentiated 3-D cell culture model can support the natural growth of human noroviruses, whereas previous attempts using differentiated monolayer cultures failed.