Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most prevalent cause of acute lower respiratory infection in young children. Currently, the first RSV vaccines are approved by the FDA. Recently, N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A) RNA methylation has been implicated in the regulation of the viral life cycle and replication of many viruses, including RSV. m⁶A methylation of RSV RNA has been demonstrated to promote replication and prevent anti-viral immune responses by the host. Whether m⁶A is also involved in viral entry and whether m⁶A can also affect RSV infection via different mechanisms than methylation of viral RNA is poorly understood. Here, we identify m⁶A reader YTH domain-containing protein 1 (YTHDC1) as a novel negative regulator of RSV infection. We demonstrate that YTHDC1 abrogates RSV infection by reducing the expression of RSV entry receptor CX3C motif chemokine receptor 1 (CX3CR1) on the cell surface of lung epithelial cells. Altogether, these data reveal a novel role for m⁶A methylation and YTHDC1 in the viral entry of RSV. These findings may contribute to the development of novel treatment options to control RSV infection.

Single-molecule fluorescence imaging experiments generally require sub-nanomolar protein concentrations to isolate single protein molecules, which makes such experiments challenging in live cells due to high intracellular protein concentrations. Here, we show that single-molecule observations can be achieved in live cells through a drastic reduction in the observation volume using overmilled zero-mode waveguides (ZMWs- subwavelength-size holes in a metal film). Overmilling of the ZMW in a palladium film creates a nanowell of tunable size in the glass layer below the aperture, which cells can penetrate. We present a thorough theoretical and experimental characterization of the optical properties of these nanowells over a wide range of ZMW diameters and overmilling depths, showing an excellent signal confinement and a 5-fold fluorescence enhancement of fluorescent molecules inside nanowells. ZMW nanowells facilitate live-cell imaging as cells form stable protrusions into the nanowells. Importantly, the nanowells greatly reduce the cytoplasmic background fluorescence, enabling the detection of individual membrane-bound fluorophores in the presence of high cytoplasmic expression levels, which could not be achieved with TIRF microscopy. Zero-mode waveguide nanowells thus provide great potential to study individual proteins in living cells.

Antiviral signalling, which can be activated in host cells upon virus infection, restricts virus replication and communicates infection status to neighbouring cells. The antiviral response is heterogeneous, both quantitatively (efficiency of response activation) and qualitatively (transcribed antiviral gene set). To investigate the basis of this heterogeneity, we combined Virus Infection Real-time IMaging (VIRIM), a live-cell single-molecule imaging method, with real-time readouts of the dsRNA sensing pathway to analyse the response of human cells to encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) infection. We find that cell-to-cell heterogeneity in viral replication rates early in infection affect the efficiency of antiviral response activation, with lower replication rates leading to more antiviral response activation. Furthermore, we show that qualitatively distinct antiviral responses can be linked to the strength of the antiviral signalling pathway. Our analyses identify variation in early viral replication rates as an important parameter contributing to heterogeneity in antiviral response activation.