Ranya Guennoun

Program: Immunology

Current advisor: Tarin Bigley, MD, PhD

Undergraduate university: Oregon State University, 2019

Enrollment year: 2021

Research summary
The Role of Type I Interferon in Murine Roseolovirus Induced Autoimmune Gastritis

Human Roseoloviruses, Human Herpesvirus (HHV)-6 and 7, have been associated with several autoimmune diseases notably encephalitis, and multiple sclerosis (MS). Due to high species-specific tropism, human herpesviruses are difficult to study in a controlled environment, and their relationship with the development of these disorders remains elusive. Recently however, the murine roseolovirus (MRV) was identified and found to be a close homolog of HHV-6 and 7. MRV is a thymotropic virus that causes transient, severe thymic atrophy with the most pronounced loss occurring in CD4/CD8 double-positive (DP) and CD4 single-positive (SP) thymocytes. Single-cell RNA sequencing data shows that CD4 SPs, DPs and double negative (DN) thymocytes as well as medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) can support productive infection of MRV. Neonatal infection of mice with MRV causes autoimmune gastritis (AIG) in adulthood. CD4 T cells are both required and sufficient for AIG development in this model. MRV infections also results in loss of AIRE transcripts in mTECs, and development of autoantibodies to several tissue antigens targeting almost all organ systems. Additionally, type I interferon (IFN) signaling is required for development of AIG in neonatally infected mice. The goal of this study is to understand the role of type I IFN signaling in auto-immune gastritis development in the setting of neonatal MRV infection.

Graduate publications
Casorla-Perez LA, Guennoun R, Cubillas C, Peng B, Kornfeld K, Wang D. 2022 Orsay Virus Infection of Caenorhabditis elegans Is Modulated by Zinc and Dependent on Lipids. J Virol, 96(22):e0121122. PMCID: PMC9682997