Molecular epidemiological study on rubella virus / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To understand the hereditary and variant characteristics of rubella virus(RV), especially the strains isolated from China, investigating the epidemical trend and variation principle of RV.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The envelope glycoprotein E1 gene was amplified from rubella virus by RT-PCR. After sequencing, the gene sequence was handled by the software DNASTAR and the phylogenetic tree was drawn to analyze the molecular epidemiological characteristics of RV.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The sequence of RV strain JR23 was sequenced, the phylogenetic tree was drawn taking 30 strains isolated at different times and locations in GenBank, including three strains from China as reference. The regions that encode the peptides which react with the HI antibody and the neutralization antibody were compared to show if there was any amino acid mutation in the sequence. (1) In general, the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of RV were highly conserved. The four strains isolated from China had relatively large variations. Strain 379 and strain BRD constituted genotype II, which is different from the other 29 strains. Further study is needed to understand their heritable resources and biological characteristics. (2) Strain JR23 showed little difference from the strains that were epidemic during 1960s in UK, USA and Japan, so maybe it is the derivative strain of that in epidemic 1960s. But the accurate epidemic time is not known.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There are differences among areas and time in epidemics of rubella. The mobility and the region difference seem to be the key factors that affect the epidemic characteristics of RV.</p>

Inhibition effects of rhubarb ethanol extract on herpes simplex virus infection in vivo / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To know the anti-viral effects of rhubarb ethanol extract (REE) on herpes simplex virus(HSV) infection in vivo.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>BALB/c mice inoculated from tail vein with 0.15 ml of HSV (TCID50=10(3)) were injected hypodermically with REE next day. After divided into seven groups, three groups of mice were given different doses of REE respectively and the other groups as controls. Pathological sections from the liver, spleen, kidney were made at different times of postinfection, and their pathological changes were observed under microscope; the virus titers in viscera were assayed by using plaque formation technique and the rhubarb inhibitions to the infection of HSV in vivo?were observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>No toxic response to mice were observed for REE injected hypodermically; no pathological changes were observed in different therapy groups of spleens. And those in livers and kidneys at medium- and high-dosed groups disappeared quickly. The effect of low-dosed group was equal to that of positive control group, acyclovir(ACV); the results of the titer tests showed that the virus decreased rapidly by using REE, especially in the medium- and high-dosed groups which were much more marked than the low-dosed group; Q test of the data showed that total mean value had statistical significance (F=49.1459, P<0.01); moreover there were statistical significance between therapy groups (ACV, DH1, DH2, DH3) and non-therapy groups (VC) (P<0.01 ) and between DH2, DH3 and DH1 (P<0.01); no statistical significance were found between DH1, DH2 or DH3 and ACV (P>0.05). Results show that as to the effect of decreasing the average of the total titer, rhubarb is as effective as ACV; furthermore, the medium- and high-dosed groups are superior to the low-dosed group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>REE has significant anti-viral effect on HSV in vivo; there will be a wide application foreground of it in clinical usage.</p>