McElroy Lab

What we do

We study viruses you might have heard of, such as Ebola or Lassa and others that you may never have heard of such as Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) and Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV). All of these viruses fall into a group generally called the VHF (Viral hemorrhagic fevers).

The VHF’s get their name because they sometimes (not always) cause disease in people that manifests as bleeding. This can take several forms, it could be oozing from IV sites, vomiting blood, having blood in the stool, or oozing blood from mucous membranes such as the mouth or the nose. While this sounds very scary, it isn’t necessarily the bleeding that makes the disease so severe! When people die, they die from shock (poor blood flow to the organs due to low blood pressure), which leads to organ failure and this leads to death. Our goal is to understand how the VHF’s make people sick so that we can design therapies that will improve patient outcomes.

How we do it

Human disease

We use primarily derived human samples to try to understand the pathophysiology of disease. The goal is to use this information to develop hypotheses about why some people get sick and others don’t. We focus our studies on various aspects of human physiology that are clearly clinically disrupted in patients with VHF; this includes aspects of endothelial function, coagulation pathways, inflammation and both innate and adaptive immune function. Only by understanding what is going right (or wrong) in the host can we begin to design therapeutics to augment or abrogate the effect.

Animal modelling

While VHF’s can be quite deadly, they are (fortunately) not the most common viruses and special challenges accompany them- they require high biosafety levels and additional regulatory oversight. Since access to primary human samples can be difficult, an alternative is to model the disease in an animal. The added benefit of animal modeling is that hypotheses can be rigorously tested and therapeutic interventions can be evaluated. We have used the mouse model of RVFV to demonstrate that CD4 T cells are important for preventing viral encephalitis, which is a known complication of RVFV disease in humans.

In vitro modelling

Sometimes the quickest way to understand why a virus is pathogenic is to study the virus in cells in the laboratory. This principle certainly applies to RVFV. This virus encodes a protein (NSs) that is known to antagonize the interferon signaling system. Viruses that are missing this protein turn out to be completely non-pathogenic and have become the basis for several RVFV vaccines that are under development for use in livestock.

The figure to the left shows NSs filaments in infected human hepatocytes.

Selected publications

Identification and Characterization of Rift Valley Fever Virus-Specific T Cells Reveals a Dependence on CD40/CD40L Interactions for Prevention of Encephalitis. Barbeau DJ, Cartwright HN, Harmon JR, Spengler JR, Spiropoulou CF, Sidney J, Sette A, McElroy AK. J Virol. 2021 Nov 9;95(23):e0150621. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01506-21. Epub 2021 Sep 8.

Isotype-Specific Fc Effector Functions Enhance Antibody-Mediated Rift Valley Fever Virus Protection In Vivo.Cartwright HN, Barbeau DJ, McElroy AK.mSphere. 2021 Oct 27;6(5):e0055621. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00556-21. Epub 2021 Sep 8.

Rift Valley Fever Virus Infection Causes Acute Encephalitis in the Ferret.

Barbeau DJ, Albe JR, Nambulli S, Tilston-Lunel NL, Hartman AL, Lakdawala SS, Klein E, Duprex WP, McElroy AK.mSphere. 2020 Oct 28;5(5):e00798-20. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00798-20.

Rift Valley Fever Virus Is Lethal in Different Inbred Mouse Strains Independent of Sex. Cartwright HN, Barbeau DJ, McElroy AK. Front Microbiol. 2020;11:1962. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01962. eCollection 2020.

Immunologic timeline of Ebola virus disease and recovery in humans.

McElroy AK, Akondy RS, Mcllwain DR, Chen H, Bjornson-Hooper Z, Mukherjee N, Mehta AK, Nolan G, Nichol ST, Spiropoulou CF. JCI Insight. 2020 May 21;5(10):e137260.

Rift Valley fever virus vaccination induces long-lived, antigen-specific human T cell responses.Harmon JR, Barbeau DJ, Nichol ST, Spiropoulou CF, McElroy AK. NPJ Vaccines. 2020 Feb 28;5:17..

Harmon JR, Nichol ST, Spiropoulou CF, McElroy, AK. Whole blood based multiplex immunoassays for the evaluation of human biomarker responses to emerging viruses in resource-limited regions. Viral Immunology, 2017, 30(9):671-674 PMID 28937957

McElroy AK, Akondy RS, Harmon JR, Ellebedy AH, Cannon D, Klena JD, Sidney J, Sette A, Mehta AK, Kraft CS, Lyon MG, Varkey JB, Ribner BS, Nichol ST, and Spiropoulou CF. A case of human Lassa virus infection with robust acute T cell activation and long-term virus-specific T cell responses. J Infect Dis 2017, 215 (12): 1862-1872. PMID:28863472

McElroy AK, Erickson BR, Flietstra TD, Rollin PE, Nichol ST, Towner JS, Spiropoulou CF. Ebola hemorrhagic fever: novel biomarker correlates of clinical outcome. J Infect Dis. 2014 Aug 15;210(4):558-66 PMID: 24526742

McElroy AK, Akondy RS, Davis CW, Ellebedy AH, Mehta AK, Kraft CS, Lyon MG, Ribner BS, Varkey JB, Sidney J, Sette A, Campbell S, Stroher U, Damon I, Nichol ST, Spiropoulou CF, and Ahmed R. Human Ebola virus infection results in substantial immune activation. PNAS, 2015 112(15):4719-24 PMID: 25775592

McElroy AK, Harmon JR, Flietstra TD Nichol ST, Spiropoulou CF. Human biomarkers of outcome following Rift Valley fever virus infection. J Infect Dis, 2018 Jun 28

Harmon JR, Spengler JR, Coleman-McCray JD, Nichol ST, Spiropoulou CF, McElroy AK. CD4 T cells, CD8 T cells and monocytes coordinate to prevent RVFV encephalitis. 2018 J Virol. Sep 26. pii: JVI.01270-18.

Dodd KA, McElroy AK, Jones MEB, Nichol ST, Spiropoulou CF. Rift Valley fever virus clearance and protection from neurologic disease are dependent on CD4+ T cell and virus-specific antibody responses. Journal of Virology, 87(11): 6161-71, 2013. PMID: 23536675

McElroy AK and Nichol ST. Rift Valley fever virus inhibits a pro-inflammatory response in experimentally infected human monocyte derived macrophages and a pro-inflammatory cytokine response may be associated with patient survival during natural infection. Virology 422(1):6-12, 2012. PMID: 22018491

Spengler JR, McElroy AK, Harmon JR, Coleman-McCray JD, Welch SR, Keck JG,, Nichol ST, Spiropoulou CF. Human immune cell engraftment does not alter development of severe acute Rift Valley fever in mice. PLoS ONE, 2018 13(7):e0201104.

de St. Maurice A, Harmon J, Nyakarahuka L, Balinandi S, Tumusiime A, Kyondo J, Mulei S, Namutebi A, Knust B, Shoemaker T, Nichol ST, McElroy AK and Spiropoulou SF. Rift valley fever viral load correlates with the human inflammatory response and coagulation pathway abnormalities in humans with hemorrhagic manifestations. PLoS NTD, 2018, 12(5):e006460

Who we are

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Pediatric Infectious Disease Doc

Virologist

Aspiring Immunologist

Military Brat

Dominique Barbeau, MS

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Lab manager/Tech IV

Microbiologist

Travelholic

Dog Mom

Lingqing Xu, PhD

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Lingqing Xu, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

Cell Biologist

Aspiring Virologist

Nature lover

Alden Paine

Lindsay Wilson

Lingqing Xu, PhD

Undergraduate

Cell Biologist

Aspiring Microbiologist

Alpinist

Lindsay Wilson

Graduate Student

Microbiologist

Spreadsheet lover

Aspiring hockey player

Tracey Freeman

Lindsay Wilson

Graduate Student

Aspiring physician-scientist

Virologist

Advocate

UPMC Children's

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Pittsburgh Liver Research Center

Research Advisory Council Startup Award

Pittsburgh Liver Research Center

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Pittsburgh Liver Research Center

Pilot and Feasibility Award

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

COVID-19 Pilot Grant

Stanley and Susan Plotkin and Sanofi Pasteur Fellowship Award (to Dr. Joshua Doyle)

Pediatric Infectious Disease Society

RK Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Stanley and Susan Plotkin and Sanofi Pasteur Fellowship Award (to Dr. Joshua Doyle)

RK Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research

Trainee Award (to Haley Cartwright)

mcelroy lab

What we do

How we do it

Human disease

Animal modelling

In vitro modelling

Selected publications

Who we are

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Dominique Barbeau, MS

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Lingqing Xu, PhD

Anita K. McElroy, MD PhD

Lingqing Xu, PhD

Alden Paine

Lindsay Wilson

Lingqing Xu, PhD

Lindsay Wilson

Lindsay Wilson

Lindsay Wilson

Tracey Freeman

Lindsay Wilson

Lindsay Wilson

FABLAB Alumni

Haley Cartwright, PhD

Haley Cartwright, PhD

Haley Cartwright, PhD

Josh Doyle, MD PhD

Haley Cartwright, PhD

Haley Cartwright, PhD

Who Funds our work

Burroughs Wellcome

National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

University of Pittsburgh

National Institutes of Health

University of Pittsburgh

UPMC Children's

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Pittsburgh Liver Research Center

Pittsburgh Liver Research Center

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Pittsburgh Liver Research Center

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Pediatric Infectious Disease Society

RK Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research

University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute

RK Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research

RK Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research

RK Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research

Contact Us

McElroy Lab