ABSTRACT
In January, a federal audit found that EcoHealth had misreported nearly $90,000 in expenses for several grants dating to 2014 and that NIH had erred by not justifying its termination (later changed to a suspension) of the 2019 grant. Three years after then-President Donald Trump pressured the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to shut down a research grant to a group studying how bat coronaviruses jump to people, the agency has restarted the award. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Science is the property of American Association for the Advancement of Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
At present, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global health crisis. Scientists all over the globe are urgently looking forward to an effective solution to prevent the spread of the epidemic and avoid more casualties at an early date. In this study, we establish an effective platform for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 by combining the neutralization strategy and RNAi technology. To protect normal cells from infection, the customized cells are constructed to stably express viral antigenic receptor ACE2 on the cell membrane. These modified cells are used as bait for inducing the viral entry. The transcription and replication activities of viral genome are intercepted subsequently by the intracellular shRNAs, which are complementary to the viral gene fragments. A pseudotyped virus reconstructed from the HIV lentivirus is utilized as a virus model, by which we validate the feasibility and effectiveness of our strategy in vitro. Our work establishes an initial model and lays the foundation for future prevention and treatment of various RNA viruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Chinese Journal of Polymer Science (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
ABSTRACT
VIRUS samples from people in the UK with severe respiratory infections, such as flu and RSV, will be routinely tested by DNA sequencing. "Other than a small amount of genome sequencing in flu cases, there really isn't any routine genomic surveillance of these other viruses", says Harrison. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of New Scientist is the property of New Scientist Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
[Display omitted] • Immunohistochemistry with magnetic core nanoparticles to isolate viruses. • The use of MALDI-MS for rapid virus detection is explained in detail. • The use of ESI-MS/MS to pinpoint host-patient crosstalk is explained in detail. • The absolute quantitative MS is explained for large-scale protein quantitation. The capabilities of bioanalytical mass spectrometry to (i) detect and differentiate viruses at the peptide level whilst maintaining high sample throughput and (ii) to provide diagnosis and prognosis for infected patients are presented as a tutorial in this work to aid analytical chemists and physicians to gain insights into the possibilities offered by current high-resolution mass spectrometry technology and bioinformatics. From (i) sampling to sample treatment;(ii) Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization- to Electrospray Ionization -based mass spectrometry;and (iii) from clustering to peptide sequencing;a detailed step-by-step guide is provided and exemplified using SARS-CoV-2 Spike Y839 variant and the variant of concern SARS-CoV-2 Alpha (B.1.1.7 lineage), Influenza B, and Influenza A subtypes AH1N1pdm09 and AH3N2. [ FROM AUTHOR]
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a highly infectious disease with a significant impact on global public health security, and the development of effective antiviral drugs is warranted. In this study, based on HEK293 membrane chromatography (CMC) model that overexpresses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), we screened six compounds with long retention time on ACE2h/CMC, namely BU-1 to BU-6, from the biphenyl furanocoumarin compounds previously synthesized by our team. The binding properties of the screened compounds to ACE2 were investigated by frontier analysis. Cytotoxicity assay, virtual molecular docking assay and pseudo-viral invasion assay were used to examine the affinity and potential antiviral activity of the selected compounds towards ACE2 protein. The virtual molecular docking results showed that BU-1, BU-2 and BU-5 could form significant hydrogen bonds with hotspot amino acid residues on the ACE2 receptor. And BU-1, BU-2 and BU-5 significantly inhibited the ability of SARS-COV-2 pseudovirus to enter ACE2h cells. Therefore, BU-1, BU-2 and BU-5 have the potential to be used as lead compounds for further modification to develop more effective anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs. [ FROM AUTHOR]
ABSTRACT
Genome studies in Australia reported a novel virus, Phasey bean mild yellows virus (genus Polerovirus;PBMYV), in mixed infections with Bean leaf roll virus, Faba bean polerovirus 1, Soybean dwarf virus and Turnip yellows virus naturally infecting phasey bean (Macroptilium lathyroides) (Sharman et al., 2021). Symptoms observed on groundnut in Kenya included mild chlorosis, chlorotic mottling and spots, interveinal chlorosis, reddening and thickening of the leaves, leaf curling and bunching, reduced leaf size and stunting A total of 673 leaf samples were collected, pooled into one sample then sequenced on the MiSeq platform (Illumina, USA). The British Society for Plant Pathology Covid-19 PhD Student Support;COmmunity Network for africaN vECTor borne plant viruses (CONNECTED) training grant;Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology Second University Innovation Fund;and the JR Biotek Foundation Plant Molecular Biology and Agricultural Research Capacity Building Program.
ABSTRACT
During the pandemic, an urgent task has become to develop new vaccine platforms that will help fight the infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 and quickly respond to newly emerging pathogens. Plant viruses can make a significant contribution to the solution of this problem. Phytoviruses, having the properties of any viral particles (self-assembly, immunogenicity, nanosize), are safe for humans since plants and mammals have no common infectious agents. As a result of thermal rearrangement of the tobacco mosaic virus, spherical particles of a protein nature have been obtained, which have unique immunostimulation and adsorption properties and can play the role of a universal adjuvant platform to create vaccines. Based on these particles, a scheme for obtaining vaccine preparations is proposed. This technology resembles a toy construction set for children. The basis is spherical particles, on the surface of which there are toy blocks-antigens. The "blocks" can be removed, added, or replaced, and this does not take much time and resources. Based on spherical particles, a polyvalent vaccine candidate against COVID-19 has been created as an adjuvant platform.
ABSTRACT
Originally, the 17th Symposium on Insect-Plant Relationships (SIP-17) was scheduled to take place in Leiden, The Netherlands, in July 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the symposium was postponed to July 2021 and held in an exclusively online format. This exceptional edition has resulted in four strong contributions to the journal. It is with great pleasure that we now present a themed issue including the proceedings of SIP-17, supplemented with eight regular articles within the subject of insect-plant relationships.
ABSTRACT
Structurally modified virus particles can be obtained from the rod-shaped or filamentous virions of plant viruses and bacteriophages by thermal or chemical treatment. They have recently attracted attention of the researchers as promising biogenic platforms for the development of new biotechnologies. This review presents data on preparation, structure, and properties of the structurally modified virus particles. In addition, their biosafety for animals is considered, as well as the areas of application of such particles in biomedicine. A separate section is devoted to one of the most relevant and promising areas for the use of structurally modified plant viruses - design of vaccine candidates based on them.
Subject(s)
Bacteriophages , Plant Viruses , Animals , VirionABSTRACT
This paper provides information on the many similarities between plant and human viruses concerning their detection, spread and control methods, such as in Tobacco mosaic virus and COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
The SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak revealed that these nano-pathogens have the ability to rapidly change lives. Undoubtedly, SARS-CoV-2 as well as other viruses can cause important global impacts, affecting public health, as well as, socioeconomic development. But viruses are not only a public health concern, they are also a problem in agriculture. The current treatments are often ineffective, are prone to develop resistance, or cause considerable adverse side effects. The use of nanotechnology has played an important role to combat viral diseases. In this review three main aspects are in focus: first, the potential use of nanoparticles as carriers for drug delivery. Second, its use for treatments of some human viral diseases, and third, its application as antivirals in plants. With these three themes, the aim is to give to readers an overview of the progress in this promising area of biotechnology during the 2017-2020 period, and to provide a glance at how tangible is the effectiveness of nanotechnology against viruses. Future prospects are also discussed. It is hoped that this review can be a contribution to general knowledge for both specialized and non-specialized readers, allowing a better knowledge of this interesting topic.
ABSTRACT
Plant viruses are commonly vectored by flying or crawling animals, such as aphids and beetles, and cause serious losses in major agricultural and horticultural crops. Controlling virus spread is often achieved by minimizing a crop's exposure to the vector, or by reducing vector numbers with compounds such as insecticides. A major, but less obvious, factor not controlled by these measures is Homo sapiens. Here, we discuss the inconvenient truth of how humans have become superspreaders of plant viruses on both a local and a global scale.
Subject(s)
Crops, Agricultural/virology , Plant Diseases/virology , Virus Diseases/transmission , Animals , Climate Change , Disease Vectors , Humans , Plant Diseases/prevention & control , Plant Viruses/growth & developmentABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that understanding the genomics of a virus, diagnostics and breaking virus transmission is essential in managing viral pandemics. The same lessons can apply for plant viruses. There are plant viruses that have severely disrupted crop production in multiple countries, as recently seen with maize lethal necrosis disease in eastern and southern Africa. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) is needed to detect new viral threats. Equally important is building local capacity to develop the tools required for rapid diagnosis of plant viruses. Most plant viruses are insect-vectored, hence, biological insights on virus transmission are vital in modelling disease spread. Research in Africa in these three areas is in its infancy and disjointed. Despite intense interest, uptake of HTS by African researchers is hampered by infrastructural gaps. The use of whole-genome information to develop field-deployable diagnostics on the continent is virtually inexistent. There is fledgling research into plant-virus-vector interactions to inform modelling of viral transmission. The gains so far have been modest but encouraging, and therefore must be consolidated. For this, I propose the creation of a new Research Centre for Africa. This bold investment is needed to secure the future of Africa's crops from insect-vectored viral diseases.