Résumé
Alphaviruses such as Chikungunya and Ross River (RRV) viruses are associated with persistent arthritisand arthralgia in humans. Monocytes and macrophages are believed to play an important role in alphaviralarthritides. In this study, we evaluated RRV permissiveness of the human acute leukemia MM6 cellline. Viral growth analysis showed that RRV infection of MM6 cells resulted in a very low virus progenyproduction with daily output. Using recombinant RRV expressing the reporter gene Renilla luciferase, aweak viral replication level was detected in infected cells at the early stages of infection. The infectionrestriction was not associated with type-I interferon and pro-inflammatory cytokines release. Apoptosishallmarks (i.e. mitochondrial BAX localisation and PARP cleavage) were observed in infected MM6cells indicating that RRV can trigger apoptosis at late infection times. The long-term persistence of RRVgenomic RNA in surviving MM6 cells identifies human monocytic cells as potential cellular reservoirs ofviral material within the infected host.