ChAT to fight viral infection
ChAT to fight viral infection Say ‘cholinergic’ and most biologists will think of the autonomic nervous system and acetylcholine’s role as a neurotransmitter. But do you know that T and B cells, macrophages and dendritic cells all express most of the components needed...
Overcoming Zika-dengue cross-reactivity Guest Blog by The Native Antigen Company
The Problem of Zika-Dengue Cross-Reactivity Antibodies generated in response to flavivirus infections are notoriously cross-reactive, presenting a major obstacle to the accurate differentiation of Zika virus (ZIKV) and dengue virus (DENV). The ability to accurately...
The virus, the vector and the microbiome
The virus, the vector and the microbiome If it has a digestive tract, it has microbiota Despite their often-negative billing as disease-causing germs, gut-living microbes are now recognized as a virtual “organ”. In anything with a digestive tract–from the tiniest...
Agent VP882, Licence to Kill
Replicate and destroy or hold fire?Viruses hijack host cells, which they force to produce thousands of identical copies of the original virus. Often, this forced-labor destroys the host cell, which is broken open (lysed), freeing the viral progeny to find and...
A(nother) systems-level approach against viruses
Dengue and Zika, why it’s good to compareDengue and Zika viruses have much in common. Both are vector-borne (mosquitoes) flaviviruses, they have similar life cycles, and we lack an effective vaccine against either. Nevertheless, dengue and Zika infections cause...
Virus diagnostics: the sandwich fingerprint
The importance of diagnostic for deadly infectious diseases, particularly in resource-deprived settings, cannot be understated. Diagnostic is most important to determine the type and level of medical intervention required, particularly for diseases where onset...
Influenza: does it matter how it looks?
Influenza: does it matter how it looks? When we think of a virus like influenza, what we picture in our mind is the classical text book representation of a rounded object uniformly covered by the surface antigens HA and NA. However, electron microscopy studies have...
Antiviral Tamarindo?
Antiviral tamarindo? Sugar-coated viruses Glycans are complex biomolecules characterized by extensive branching of carbohydrates, and a variety of glycosylation patterns have been identified on viral surface proteins. Glycosylation is carried out by the host cell...
How does gluten become an enemy? (Ask the virus)
How does gluten become an enemy? (Ask the virus) Celiac disease is an immune-mediated disorder in which a pathologic immune response is mounted against otherwise harmless antigens present in gluten. This causes an abnormal TH1 inflammatory response, which severely...
Don’t give Zika a helping hand: Post-entry immunity to Zika virus
Don’t give Zika a helping hand: Post-entry immunity to Zika virus Zika virus (ZIKV) is a re-emerged mosquito-transmitted flavivirus that can cause a wide spectrum of long-term severe congenital manifestations, including microcephaly in new-born infants and...
How will the llamas save us?
How will the llamas save us? One hundred years ago, the relief that followed the end of a most gruesome war was met with the grief of going back to normal life without many loved ones. Not everybody died in the trenches or under the bombs: between 50 and 100 millions...
Dengue virus: are we forgetting the genotypes?
Dengue virus: are we forgetting the genotypes? With almost 400 million infections every year, the impact of dengue virus (DENV) on global health is of substantial concern. The presence of four co-circulating serotypes, and the development of non-neutralizing enhancing...
Stopping chikungunya on its way out
Stopping chikungunya on its way out When our bodies come under attack from a viral pathogen, a sophisticated antibody response activates to limit the spread of infection. As part of this response, antibodies are produced against multiple epitopes of the invading...
The Quest for a Dengue Vaccine
The Quest for a Dengue Vaccine Dengue fever is a viral disease and its prevalence has grown dramatically and globally in recent decades. Dengue fever is caused by the dengue virus (DENV), an arthropod-borne pathogen transmitted to vertebrates by infected mosquitos,...
More unexpected troubles from flaviviruses
More unexpected troubles from flaviviruses The functions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are controlled by the so-called enteric nervous system (ENS). Although influenced by the central and the autonomous nervous systems, the ENS can act independently of both, and...
Finding influenza’s Achilles’ heel
Finding influenza’s Achilles’ heel Influenza virus is a moving target The influenza virus is a moving target. Because of its constant mutations and genetic re-assortments, clinical virologists struggle to keep up (read more about it here). Point mutations in the amino...
Did Zika mutate and turn ugly?
Did Zika mutate and turn ugly? Zika virus (ZIKV) has been around for a while, first isolated by serendipity in a sentinel monkey that developed fever during observation in 1947. It was then observed in the human population during the course of several sporadic foci in...
New Host Factors for Zika
New Host Factors for Zika Little is known about the molecular mechanisms responsible for Zika virus (ZIKV) pathogenesis. Learning about cellular responses to viral infection and the mechanisms of host restriction and immune evasion is fundamental for the development...
Human cytomegalovirus: how does it get in?
Human cytomegalovirus: how does it get in? HCMV: the problem Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects between 50% and 100% of the human population, depending on the geographical location. Generally infection doesn’t cause major complications, but the virus remains latent...
The Puzzling Case of Brazilian Yellow Fever Resurgence
The Puzzling Case of Brazilian Yellow Fever Resurgence Yellow fever virus (YFV) is the etiologic agent of yellow fever, an acute hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Although there is no specific antiviral drug for yellow fever, a...
Do we change influenza?
Do we change influenza? Seasonal influenza is caused by mutations that change the circulating virus in a way that is no longer (or only partially) recognised by our immune response. Pandemics are generally cause by more substantial reassortments that generate very...
Using the fruit fly to take on Zika virus
Using the fruit fly to take on Zika virus Zika virus (ZIKV), a member of the Flaviviridae family, preferentially targets and damages neural stem cells and progenitor cells. Therefore, ZIKV is particularly dangerous during fetal development as infection can lead...
The unforgettable first flu
The unforgettable first flu Does the first flu you ever caught affect how you will cope with all future flu infections you might encounter, including pandemic flu? This fascinating hypothesis, originally proposed by Thomas Francis in the 1940s and 50s, has been...
mRNA vaccines go into humans
mRNA vaccines go into humans The most recent epidemics of Ebola, Zika, influenza and many others have contributed to raise awareness of the need for a platform allowing the rapid implementation of new vaccines and antivirals. For vaccines, this platform may have...
Papilloma virus won’t give up its weapons easily
Papilloma virus won’t give up its weapons easily Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a very common DNA virus that infects the differentiated squamous cell epithelium and mucosal membranes. Most HPV infections are cleared by the immune system and do not result in clinical...
The narrow path to an effective HIV vaccine
The narrow path to an effective HIV vaccine How HIV targets immunity Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus that causes an infection of the immune system, eventually leading to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV specifically infects and...
Zika: how far from a vaccine?
Zika: how far from a vaccine? About two years after the largest epidemics of Zika virus (ZIKV), how far are we from a vaccine? In a recent minireview on Cell Host & Microbe, Shan et al review the current progress in ZIKV vaccination. The good news is that...
A sharp(er) close-up of Zika virus
A sharp(er) close-up of Zika virus Structural information on flaviviruses, including dengue (DENV, immature, mature, and fusogenic), Japanese encephalitis (JEV, mature), Tick-borne encephalitis (mature), West Nile virus (immature and mature), and Zika (ZIKV, mature...
The real burden behind Zika infection
The real burden behind Zika infection Zika: a clear and present threat Believe it or not, Zika virus (ZIKV) was once considered rather harmless. This is because most Zika-infected individuals are asymptomatic. But things can change rapidly in the world of viruses....
Is there Herpes behind Alzheimer?
Is there Herpes behind Alzheimer? Serendipity is often responsible for the greatest scientific discoveries. How many blockbuster drugs of the twentieth century happened because someone picked up on the “wrong” information? Serendipity seems to have contributed when a...
Rationally designed monoclonal against Zika virus
Rationally designed monoclonal against Zika virus Since its re-emergence in 2013, Zika virus (ZIKV) has made the headlines around the world. This was due both to the unexpectedly rapid spread and to the disturbing neurological complication in babies born from women...
Deltacoronaviruses: How many steps to Disease X?
Deltacoronaviruses: How many steps to Disease X? A novel porcine virus can enter human cells In this week’s paper, we summarize an important discovery regarding the capability of certain viruses to cross species barriers. Working together, scientists based in American...
Ebola: What’s in the toolbox?
Ebola: What’s in the toolbox? For the almost 40 years that preceded the most recent epidemics, Ebola virus (EBOV) had only caused limited outbreaks of up to 400 cases. However, by the time the 2013 epidemic was over in 2016, the virus had caused 28,616 infections and...
How is a dengue vaccine feasible?
How is a dengue vaccine feasible? A dearth of information on individual susceptibility and correlatives of protection is a major problem in understanding dengue infections and pathogenesis. While recent monitoring data on a large Nicaraguan child cohort has provided...
A new host factor for Old World arthritogenic viruses
A new host factor for Old World arthritogenic viruses Old World and New World alphaviruses Alphaviruses are mosquito-transmitted viruses that cause a range of human diseases, with manifestations varying from fever or rash to significant inflammatory pathologies,...
Targeting the host to defeat the virus
Targeting the host to defeat the virus Amongst the various viruses that can cause flu- and cold-like illnesses, rhinoviruses are the most common. Picornaviridae Rhinoviruses (RV) are a family of single-stranded RNA viruses. More than 100 distinct RV serotypes have...
Evolutionary insights into cross-species transmission
Evolutionary insights into cross-species transmission Pathogens emerging from the wild constitute one of the major risks to human and animal health. Beside occasional spillovers, where pathogens can accidentally infect a new host, taxon shifts involve a degree of...
Tech Advance: direct RNA sequencing of the native flu genome
Tech Advance: direct RNA sequencing of the native flu genome Indirect sequencing of RNA Ribonucleic acid sequencing can be used to monitor the RNAs present in a sample. So far, the sequencing of RNA has been mostly indirect, being first reverse transcribed into cDNA,...
Where does norovirus go?
Where does norovirus go? Norovirus infections cause 700 million cases of acute viral gastroenteritis each year and about 200,000 deaths. For most people, a norovirus infection resolves shortly after the acute manifestation, but in some individuals, the virus is...
The Achille’s heel of influenza
The Achille’s heel of influenza Influenza virus evolves so rapidly that last year’s antibodies usually cannot protect us from this year’s viral strain. This is due to specific characteristics of the virus that make it highly prone to mutate. First,...
Post-natal Zika infection: The unknown threat
Post-natal Zika infection: The unknown threat In 2015/16 an unprecedented and unexpected outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV) in Brazil was associated with a surge of microcephaly cases in newborn babies. This surge in microcephaly was shown to be caused by maternal...
Astrovirology: Viruses in space
Astrovirology: Viruses in space Have you ever wondered if viruses are blasted into space by asteroid impacts or volcanoes, whether viruses can survive in space or how we could detect alien viruses that might exist on Jupiter’s moons? If you’re curious about any of the...
Structural insights into better vaccines
Structural insights into better vaccines The invention of successful vaccines precedes our understanding of the immune response and virus biology. However, while many vaccines against highly pathogenic viruses have been available for a long time, developing vaccines...
Towards conquering the influenza virus
Towards conquering the influenza virus This week we walk through a relevant short editorial by Gail Teitzel entitled “The Moving Target of Flu” that highlights some interesting approaches to vaccine design and optimization. Annually, influenza virus...
Uncovering the virosphere
Uncovering the virosphere We know that viruses are everywhere and there are a lot of them. But how little we know about them is only now becoming clear. In particular, RNA viruses seem to have many surprises to offer. The reasons for this lack of knowledge, the recent...
Zika infection:does dengue make it worse?
Zika infection: does dengue make it worse? This week we walk through an interesting Trends in Microbiology review by Sariol et al. that addresses recent investigations into the possibility of enhanced Zika virus pathogenesis when the infection follows a previous...
What made Zika special?
What was special about ZIKV? Although it was first identified in 1947, the world first came to be aware of Zika virus (ZIKV) during the 2015 epidemics in South America, where 1.5 million people were infected, and a surge of cases of microcephaly and congenital Zika...
Towards a universal influenza vaccine
Towards a universal influenza vaccine Is a universal influenza vaccine on the horizon? In this week’s virology post, drawing on an excellent recent review by Sautto et al. (Virology Journal), we highlight some of the innovative approaches being used in attempts to...
The antivirus inside you
The antivirus inside you Infected cells often die. Either they are killed by the infecting virus itself, or they initiate controlled auto-destruction mechanisms (e.g., apoptosis) to prevent the infecting virus from replicating further. Fortunately, our body can...
The virus inside you
The virus inside you Since the origin of life on Earth, species have exploited each other, and viruses have proven themselves to be particularly efficient at this. However, new discoveries are revealing how viruses and microbes have helped in the building of the...
It’s the virus, stupid (?)
It’s the virus, stupid (?) Direct acting antivirals (DAAs) are among the most successful drugs ever developed. It is thanks to DAAs that HIV is no longer a death sentence, and we can now clear hepatitis C virus from many chronically infected patients. Unfortunately,...
Engineered Influenza Virus as a Weapon Against Cancer
Engineered Influenza Virus as a Weapon Against Cancer What if a virus could be used to selectively replicate in – and kill – cancer cells, without harming the normal tissues? Some researchers are aiming to do exactly this by genetically engineering oncolytic viruses...
The search for a dengue vaccine: What have we learned?
The search for a dengue vaccine: What have we learned? The ambiguous role of antibodies is a major problem in the development of a dengue vaccine. First, heterotypic, non-neutralizing antibodies can cause antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), leading to increased...
Dengvaxia: what went wrong?
Dengvaxia: what went wrong? Dengue fever is caused by four related but distinct viruses (dengue serotypes 1–4). These serotypes differ in their antigenicity and trigger unique antibody responses. Initial infection with one dengue serotype causes a mild flu-like...
Do vaccines spread?
Do vaccines spread? A live attenuated vaccine is effectively still a virus, and as such it shares with viruses the ability to spread. This is an important and often overlooked concept that is covered with much clarity by Bull, Smithson and Nuismer in Trends in...
Vaccine Research: Then and Now
Vaccine Research: Then and Now If life expectancy has greatly increased in the past century, this is largely due to vaccines, which, according to the WHO, save 6 million people from death each year. This terrific success, unfortunately, has led many to forget about...
How to survive a phenotypic antiviral screening
How to survive a phenotypic antiviral screening Antiviral screening is a powerful tool to identify new compounds and therapeutic targets against viruses. Traditionally, an antiviral screening targets a viral protein critical for replication and uses high-throughput in...
Six useful viral qRT-PCR tips
Six useful viral qRT-PCR tips Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) is a sensitive and accurate method for detecting viruses in samples, or to test for transcript variation in infected cells. However, some viruses might add additional levels of trickiness to this...
How we can help with your research
How we can help with your research University College London has world class research facilities and personnel. We want to make this expertise available to fellow academics and industry researchers by providing superior, cost-efficient research services. Within our...Page 1 of 1