Authors of a debated flu transmission study discuss why such work is important and should be published.Comment on this article at http://scim.ag/ypjDVx.

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is a neurotropic virus that remains latent in host neurons. Viral DNA replication is a highly structured process in which the redistribution of nuclear proteins plays an important role. Although tau is most widely known as a microtubule-associated protein found in a hyperphosphorylated state ...

Our knowledge regarding the contribution of the innate immune system in recognizing and subsequently initiating a host response to an invasion of RNA virus has been rapidly growing over the last decade. Descriptions of the receptors involved and the molecular mechanisms they employ to sense viral pathogen-associated molecular patterns have ...

Based on the broad-spectrum antiviral effect of green tea catechins, we established an experimental skin contact model for influenza virus transmission and evaluated the use of a green tea solution as a first-hand disinfectant. The infectivity of the virus on the skin cell layer became obsolete when washed with the ...

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), produces systemic and central nervous system disease in its natural host, the domestic cat, that parallels the pathogenesis seen in HIV-infected humans. The ability to culture feline nervous system tissue affords the unique opportunity to directly examine interactions of infectious ...

A hallmark of herpes viruses is their capacity to cause recurrent disease. Recurrences of herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 disease do not result from reinfection from external sources, but rather from reactivation of virus that is maintained in a latent state in sensory neurons and periodically reactivates from latency to cause ...

The principal aim of the study was to determine the influence of influenza A virus infection on capsaicin-induced relaxation responses in mouse isolated tracheal segments, and to clarify underlying mechanisms. Anaesthetised mice were intranasally inoculated with influenza A/PR-8/34 virus (VIRUS) or vehicle (SHAM), and four days later tracheal segments were ...

Neurotropic viruses cause viral encephalitis and are associated with the development of seizures/epilepsy. The first infection-driven animal model for epilepsy, the Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus-induced seizure model is described herein. Intracerebral infection of C57BL/6 mice with Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus induces acute seizures from which the animals recover. However, once ...

Efavirenz, used in treating pediatric human immunodeficiency virus infection, has central nervous system side effects. We report on a 5-year-old girl with perinatally acquired human immunodeficiency virus infection, presenting with new onset absence seizures after starting treatment with efavirenz. Plasma efavirenz values were above therapeutic range. The child was homozygous ...

Distal sensory polyneuropathy is a frequent complication of lentivirus infections of the peripheral nervous system including both human immunodeficiency virus and feline immunodeficiency virus. Proteinase-activated receptors are G protein-coupled receptors implicated in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Proteinase-activated receptor-1 is expressed on different cell types within the nervous system ...

Human coronaviruses (HCoV) are recognized respiratory pathogens. Some HCoV strains, including HCoV-OC43, can invade the central nervous system where they infect neurons, with unclear consequences. We have previously reported that HCoV-OC43 infection of human neurons activates the unfolded protein response and caspase-3, induces cell death, and that the viral spike ...

Herpesviruses can cause an acute, subacute, or chronic disease state in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised individuals. Herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis is most often an acute monophasic disease process. Rarely, however, it may progress to a chronic state, and more rarely still to a granulomatous encephalitis. Prior studies have suggested ...

During September-October 2010, an unprecedented outbreak of Rift Valley fever was reported in the northern Sahelian region of Mauritania after exceptionally heavy rainfall. Camels probably played a central role in the local amplification of the virus. We describe the main clinical signs (hemorrhagic fever, icterus, and nervous symptoms) observed during ...

Virus-induced spinal cord damage results from a cytolytic effect on anterior horn cells or from predominantly cellular immune-mediated damage of long white matter tracts. Infection with the hepatitis virus group, most notably hepatitis C virus, has infrequently been associated with the occurrence of myelitis. The pathogenesis of hepatitis virus-associated myelitis ...

Rabies virus glycoprotein (RVG) can pseudotype lentiviral vectors, although at a lower efficiency to that of vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSVG). Transduction with VSVG-pseudotyped vectors of rodent central nervous system (CNS) leads to local neurotropic gene transfer, whereas with RVG-pseudotyped vectors additional disperse transduction of neurons located at distal efferent ...

Viral vectors that genetically incorporate an immunoglobulin-binding domain on their surfaces provide many advantages because of the availability of a spectrum of antibodies that allow the selection of a wide range of target cells. However, the specificity and the effectiveness of this system have not been evaluated in the field ...

Aims: Despite knowledge about the impact of brain inflammation on hippocampal neurogenesis, data on the influence of virus encephalitis on dentate granule cell neurogenesis are so far limited. Canine distemper is considered an interesting model of virus encephalitis, which can be associated with a chronic progressing disease course and can ...

To understand how the nervous system processes information, a map of the connections among neurons would be of great benefit. Here we describe the use of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) for tracing neuronal connections in vivo. We made VSV vectors that used glycoprotein (G) genes from several other viruses. The ...

Most humans are infected with herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 in early childhood and remain latently infected throughout life. While most individuals have mild or no symptoms, some will develop destructive HSV keratitis. Ocular infection with HSV-1 and its associated sequelae account for the majority of corneal blindness in ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Over the last several decades it has been noted, using a variety of different methods that cells infected by a specific gammaretrovirus are resistant to challenge infection by other retroviruses that employ the same receptor; a phenomenon termed receptor interference. Receptor masking is thought to provide an earlier ...

In mammals, odorants are inhaled through the nose and inside the nasal cavity they trigger olfactory sensory neurons (OSN)  that are located within the olfactory epithelium. OSN project their axons into glomerular structures of the olfactory bulb. There they synapse with dendrites of second-order neurons that project their axons to the olfactory cortex. Thus, ...

Gill-associated virus (GAV) is a nidovirus that commonly infects Penaeus monodon (black tiger shrimp) in eastern Australia, causing morbidity and mortalities in the acute stage of disease. Here we explored the possibility of inhibiting GAV replication and disease using double-stranded (ds)RNAs expressed in bacteria and delivered either orally or by ...

This report describes the case of a previously healthy young man who presented with fever, pharyngitis, cervical lymphadenopathy, lymphocytosis, and severe thrombocytopenia. Serological tests for Epstein-Barr virus were diagnostic of a primary Epstein-Barr virus infectious mononucleosis but severe thrombocytopenia aroused the suspicion of a lymphoproliferative disease. T-cell receptor gene analysis ...

Tiger frog virus (TFV), in the genus Ranavirus of the family Iridoviridae, causes high mortality of cultured tiger frog tadpoles in China. To explore the cellular entry mechanism of TFV, HepG2 cells were treated with drugs that inhibit the main endocytic pathways. We observed that TFV entry was inhibited by ...

Viruses have evolved complex and dynamic interactions with their host cell. In recent years we have gained insight into the expanding roles for host lipids in the virus life cycle. In particular, viruses target lipid signaling, synthesis, and metabolism to remodel their host cells into an optimal environment for their ...

Dengue virus (DENV) causes the major arboviral disease of the tropics, characterized in its severe forms by signs of hemorrhage and plasma leakage. DENV encodes a nonstructural glycoprotein, NS1, that associates with intracellular membranes and the cell surface. NS1 is eventually secreted as a soluble hexamer from DENV-infected cells and ...

An atypical case of canine distemper (CD) was diagnosed in a vaccinated healthy adult dog. The patient was presented circling, seizuring, and blind. Postmortem examination resulted in a diagnosis of CD. Optic neuritis was diagnosed, a finding not previously described in the context of CD virus infection presenting solely with ...

Wild-type human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) group O reverse transcriptase (RT) shows increased thermostability in comparison with HIV-1 group M subtype B RT and murine leukemia virus (MLV) RT. However, its utility in the amplification of RNA targets is limited by the reduced accuracy of lentiviral RTs versus oncoretroviral ...

HIV-1 integrase (IN) is a key viral enzymatic protein acting in several viral replication steps, including integration. IN has been shown to be an unstable protein degraded by the N-end rule pathway through the host ubiquitin-proteasome machinery. However, it is still not fully understood how this viral protein is protected ...

HIV-1 integrase (IN)1 orchestrates the integration of the reverse transcribed viral cDNA into the host cell genome and participates also in other steps of HIV-1 replication. Cellular and viral factors assist IN in performing its multiple functions, and post-translational modifications contribute to modulate its activities. Here, we show that HIV-1 ...

Density-dependent processes such as larval competition may be important regulatory factors among some mosquito species. The application of pesticides used for control may alter these density-dependent interactions with consequences for the number of survivors and associated sublethal and chronic effects on these individuals. We examined how intraspecific competition among larvae ...

We describe the cryo-electron microscopy structure of bacteriophage MS2 bound to its receptor, the bacterial F-pilus. The virus contacts the pilus at a capsid5-fold vertex, thus locating the surface-accessible portion of the single copy of the pilin-binding maturation protein present in virions. This arrangement allows a 5-fold averaged map to ...

The aim of this study was to analyse tropism evolution in HIV-1 patients with at least 2 years of viral load undetectability. For this purpose, HIV-1-infected antiretroviral-treated patients (n = 128) with a viral load less than 50 copies/ml for 4 years in median were studied. No change of virus ...

The generation of strong, virus-neutralizing antibody responses to the HIV-1 envelope spike (Env) is a major goal in HIV-1 vaccine research. To try to enhance the Env-specific response, we displayed oligomeric gp140 on a virus-like scaffold provided by the lambda phage capsid. To do this, an in vitro complementation system ...

Cellular membrane cholesterol has been shown to support various membrane proteins. However, the role and function of membrane cholesterol in viral production are still unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of cholesterol depletion from the cell membrane on the production of hemagglutinating virus of Japan (HVJ; Sendai virus). Cholesterol depletion ...

Background: Most of the effects of statins can be explained by pleiotropic effects independent of their lowering of serum cholesterol; in some cases, these effects have been shown to be a result of the role of statins in the prenylation of cellular proteins, some of which are involved in the ...

The Gag-Pol polyprotein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is not required for efficient viral particle production. However, premature termination codons in pol, particularly in the integrase (IN)-coding region, can markedly impair HIV-1 particle formation, apparently due to the premature activation of the viral protease (PR). We now report ...

Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-biphosphate [PI(4,5)P(2) ], the predominant phosphoinositide (PI) on the plasma membrane, binds the matrix (MA) protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) with similar affinities in vitro. Interaction with PI(4,5)P(2) is critical for HIV-1 assembly on the plasma membrane. EIAV has been ...

Powerful transneuronal tracing technologies exploit the ability of some neurotropic viruses to travel across neuronal pathways and to function as self-amplifying markers. Rabies virus is the only viral tracer that is entirely specific, as it propagates exclusively between connected neurons by strictly unidirectional (retrograde) transneuronal transfer, allowing for the stepwise ...

Rabies virus (RABV) is a strictly neurotropic virus that slowly propagates in the nervous system (NS) of the infected host from the site of entry (usually due to a bite) up to the site of exit (salivary glands). Successful achievement of the virus cycle relies on the preservation of the ...

We have previously identified the guanine-rich oligonucleotide (ODN) 93del as a potent inhibitor in vitro of HIV-1 integrase. Moreover, low nanomolar concentrations of ODN 93del have been shown to inhibit HIV-1 replication in infected cells. To investigate the ex vivo mechanism of ODN 93del inhibition, we analysed its antiviral effects ...

The identification of phenotypically distinct HIV-1 variants with different prevalence during the progression of the disease has been one of the earliest discoveries in HIV-1 biology, but its relevance to AIDS pathogenesis remains only partially understood. The physiological basis for the phenotypic variability of HIV-1 was elucidated with the discovery ...

The Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport (ESCRT) machinery, a highly conserved set of four hetero-oligomeric protein complexes, is required for multivesicular body formation, sorting ubiquitinylated membrane proteins for lysosomal degradation, cytokinesis and the final stages of assembly of a number of enveloped viruses, including the human immunodeficiency viruses. Here, ...

Abstract The binding of murine IgM mAbs to five different clades of HIV-1 was examined using a modified ELISA-based virus capture assay. Two murine multispecific IgM mAbs that exhibit both lipid and gp41 epitope specificities, and one murine IgM mAb that exhibits lipid-binding specificity, were utilized. The binding of the ...

Alphaviruses are enveloped arboviruses. The viral envelope is derived from the host cell and is positioned between two icosahedral protein shells (T = 4). Because the viral envelope contains glycoproteins involved in cell recognition and entry, the integrity of the envelope is critical for the success of the early events ...

The HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein (NC) is a nucleic acid chaperone, which remodels nucleic acid structures so that the most thermodynamically stable conformations are formed. This activity is essential for virus replication and has a critical role in mediating highly specific and efficient reverse transcription. NC's function in this process depends ...

The detection of viral infection in paraffin-embedded, formalin-fixed tissue is notoriously difficult and often requires inherent knowledge about the specific virus being sought. For this reason, there is an ongoing need for reagents and methods which can identify a range of different virus types in paraffin embedded tissue. The aim ...

The tissue tropism of Musca domestica salivary gland hypertrophy virus (MdSGHV) infecting adult house flies was examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and quantitative real-time PCR. TEM demonstrated that characteristic MdSGHV-induced nuclear and cellular hypertrophy was restricted to the salivary glands. Both nucleocapsids and enveloped virions were present in salivary ...

Merkel Cell Virus (MCV) is a newly discovered polyomavirus, recently found in a rare skin cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). However, MCV has also been detected in some normal tissue samples. We tested and compared the relative quantity of the MCV in a set of diverse human tissue samples with ...

Torque teno viruses (TTVs) are small, non-enveloped viruses with a circular single-stranded DNA genome, belonging to the family Anelloviridae. In swine, two genetically distinct species have been identified, Torque teno sus virus 1 (TTSuV1) and 2 (TTSuV2). The aim of the present work was to study the tissue distribution of ...