Postdoctoral Fellow Korea National Institute of Health, Ch'ungch'ong-bukto, Republic of Korea
Abstract: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV or Dabie bandavirus) is a tick-borne virus that causes hemorrhagic fever with a high case fatality rate. It is endemic to East Asia, particularly South Korea, China, and Japan. Also, it has recently raised public health concerns in the United States, where ticks carrying SFTSV have been detected in over 20 states. Despite its clinical importance, there are currently no effective treatments or vaccines, and the mechanisms of SFTSV remain poorly understood. To this end, many in vitro studies have been conducted; however, challenges remain due to the difficulty of establishing infection and the prolonged initial incubation period. Especially, animal models for SFTSV infection have been challenging to establish, as commonly used mouse models fail to support efficient viral replication and do not fully recapitulate severe symptoms such as high fever, significant weight loss and multi-organ failure. In this study, we developed a pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatic organoid (HO) model to investigate SFTSV infection. The pluripotent stem cell-derived HO showed a SFTSV infection pattern at the genomic level. In addition, immature HO showed higher susceptibility to SFTSV than mature HO. Transcription analysis further revealed differences in gene expression for HO maturation and virus susceptibility. These findings suggest that HO derived from pluripotent stem cells can serve as a promising in vitro model for studying SFTSV infection, providing new insights into the virus-host interactions and potentially aiding in developing antiviral strategies.
Funding Source: This study was supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH) research project (project number 2025-NI-008-00 and 2025-NI-009-00).
