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Oral transmission of polioviruses (contained in water or food) and their colonization of the gastrointestinal tract

Major risk factors for poliovirus transmission include poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, high population density, and tropical or subtropical climate. (A) Polioviruses infect humans by the fecal-oral route. This acid-resistant virus can travel through the stomach (pH: 1–2) and reach the intestine. (B) Once in the intestine (pH: 7.3–7.7), the poliovirus (WPV or OPV) meets the commensal microbiota and the first antiviral defense, such as the mucus layer, protective peptides, immune cells expressing CD103 and KLRG1 and is able to bind the E-cadherin found at the surface of epithelial cells (Devaux and Raoult 2018; Devaux et al 2019). However, the interaction of poliovirus capsid with lipopolysaccharide of bacteria enhances virion stability and receptor attachment (Robinson et al 2014). (C) The polioviruses which manage to pass the first barrier of defense encounter a second barrier which is the intestinal epithelium, protecting the host against intruder transmigration. On this intestinal epithelium, polioviruses found their CD155 receptor on M cells. (D) Simplified model of replication cycle of polioviruses.

(Source: Devaux CA, Pontarotti P, Levasseur A, Colson P, Raoult D. Is it time to switch to a formulation other than the live attenuated poliovirus vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis? Front Public Health 2024;11:1284337. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International [CC BY 4.0] license, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.)

References cited:
Devaux CA, Mezouar S, Mege JL. The E-cadherin cleavage associated to pathogenic bacteria infections can favor bacterial invasion and transmigration, dysregulation of the immune response and cancer induction in humans. Front Microbiol 2019;10:2598.
Devaux CA, Raoult D. The microbiological memory, an epigenetic regulator governing the balance between good health and metabolic disorders. Front Microbiol 2018;9:1379.
Robinson CM, Jesudhasan PR, Pfeiffer JK. Bacterial lipopolysaccharide binding enhances virion stability and promotes environmental fitness of an enteric virus. Cell Host Microbe 2014;15(1):36-46.

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Associated Disorders

  • Aseptic meningitis
  • Bulbar polio
  • Bulbospinal polio
  • Infantile paralysis
  • Nonparalytic polio
  • Paralytic polio
  • Polioencephalitis
  • Post-polio progressive muscular atrophy
  • Post-polio syndrome
  • Spinal paralytic polio