Literature review

Kylian TREPAT, doctoral student at the UCBL/HCL/bioMérieux joint research laboratory, published “Exploring viral respiratory coinfections: Shedding light on pathogen interactions” in September 2024, in PLoS Pathogens. This review of the literature, in the “Pearls” format, aims to synthesize in an educational manner, in a short format, the mechanisms of viral interactions described during viral coinfection.

Respiratory infections represent a significant global health burden, being one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. In 2019, it was estimated that there were 17.2 billion cases of upper respiratory tract infections, accounting for more than 40% of all diseases. Viral coinfections, in which multiple viruses simultaneously infect an individual, are observed in 3% to 26% of patients hospitalized with respiratory infections.

Viral interactions can be classified as homologous, heterotypic, and heterologous, depending on whether they involve viruses from the same family, the same species, or different families, respectively. These interactions can be either negative or positive.

This “Pearls” review provides an overview of the diversity of viral interactions identified to date. However, we also highlight the challenges in identifying and describing these mechanisms, such as the limitations of experimental models and the complexity of epidemiological data analysis. These challenges require more comprehensive approaches to better understand the complexity of these interactions.

K. Trepat, A. Gibeaud, S. Trouillet-Assant, et O. Terrier, « Exploring viral respiratory coinfections: Shedding light on pathogen interactions », PLoS Pathog, vol. 20, n^o 9, p. e1012556, sept. 2024, doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1012556