Subject(s)
Health Services Administration/standards , Information Services , Quality Indicators, Health Care , Communication , Efficiency, Organizational , Hospitals, Proprietary/organization & administration , Hospitals, Voluntary/organization & administration , Humans , Models, Organizational , Organizational Culture , Organizational Innovation , United StatesABSTRACT
Spherical to oval particles with a unit membrane and subunit surface structure were demonstrated by negative-contrast staining of supernatant fluids of A-549 cell cultures infected with strain 76-118 of Hantaan virus. The particles had an average diameter of about 95 nm, with a range of 80 to 110 nm. Similar particles were isolated by buoyant density fractionation in sucrose gradients. In four separate experiments, infectivity cosedimented with 95 nm particles at buoyant densities from 1.15 to 1.18 g/ml. Immunoaggregation of the virions was specifically produced by antisera obtained after Hantaan virus infection of man and rabbit. The known physicochemical and morphological properties of these particles are compatible with those generally reported for the Bunyaviridae family of viruses.
Subject(s)
Bunyaviridae/ultrastructure , Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome/etiology , Bunyaviridae/classification , Bunyaviridae/isolation & purification , Cell Line , Genes, Viral , Humans , Microscopy, Electron , Terminology as TopicABSTRACT
The etiologic agent of Korean hemorrhagic fever has been propagated in a human cultured cell line derived from a carcinoma of the lung. The cells, described as type II, alveolar epithelial, support replication of the agent and successive passages. Antigen of the Korean hemorrhagic fever agent is readily detected in infected cells by means of direct or indirect fluorescent antibody techniques. Previous attempts to propagate this agent in vitro had been unsuccessful.
Subject(s)
Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome/microbiology , Orthohantavirus/growth & development , RNA Viruses/growth & development , Antigens, Viral/analysis , Cell Line , Orthohantavirus/immunology , Humans , Pulmonary Alveoli/microbiologyABSTRACT
Four structural polypeptides of Hazara virus, an agent closely related to the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (C-CHF) viruses, were resolved by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Three glycoproteins were identified (mol. wt. 84,000, 45,000 and 30,000) and were found to be associated with the virion envelope. A fourth polypeptide (mol. wt. 52,000) was non-glycosylated and associated with the nucleocapsid. The structural proteins of Hazara virus differ markedly from those reported for other bunyaviruses.
Subject(s)
Bunyaviridae/analysis , Glycoproteins/analysis , Viral Proteins/analysis , Capsid/analysis , Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel , Molecular Weight , Viral Envelope ProteinsABSTRACT
Studies were conducted to define the natural host range of the Korean hemorrhagic fever (KHF) agent in South Korea, and to identify colonized rodents susceptible to this infection. Eight species of field rodents were captured in areas of Korea endemic for KHF and their tissues were examined by immunofluorescence for the presence of KHF antigen. One hundred and fourteen of 817 Apodemus agrarius coreae captured between 1974 and 1978 had one or more positive organs. No positive organ was found in 239 rodents of the other seven species examined. Two hundred and thirty-eight specimens of Apodemus agrarius jejuensis captured on Jeju Island, an area thought to be free of disease, were also negative. Attempted laboratory infection of nine species of rodents captured in the field but maintained in the laboratory was successful only in the two subspecies of Apodemus. The 46 specimens of A. a. jejunesis tested in this manner were all uniformly susceptible to infection as determined by immunofluorescence. Serial sacrifice of experimentally infected A. a. jejuensis revealed viremia of short duration terminating on day 10 postinfection. In contrast, other tissues of this animal, including lung, kidney, liver and parotid gland were positive on day 10 and remained so through the 100-day observation period. When 12 species of colonized laboratory rodents were inoculated with KHF agent five were found to develop KHF antibody by indirect immunofluorescence and two, Calomys callosus and Apodemus agrarious ningpoensis, developed detectable KHF antigen in their tissues.
Subject(s)
Orthohantavirus/isolation & purification , RNA Viruses/isolation & purification , Rodentia/microbiology , Animals , Antibodies, Viral/biosynthesis , Cricetinae , Disease Reservoirs , Fluorescent Antibody Technique , Gerbillinae , Guinea Pigs , Orthohantavirus/immunology , Korea , Mice , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Mice, Inbred ICR , Rabbits , RatsABSTRACT
A newly developed spot slide immunofluorescence method utilizing an in vitro antigen source was used for the first time for the assay of antibodies reactant with the Korean haemorrhagic fever (KHF) agent in sera from patients diagnosed with Scandinavian epidemic (endemic) nephropathy (nephropathia epidemica, NE) and from age-matched control patients living in the same area as the NE patients but suffering from other diseases. KHF antibodies were demonstrated in all of 14 NE patients who were followed prospectively, 7 of whom exhibited seroconversion and in 6 of 8 NE patients studied retrospectively, but in only one of 42 controls. Antibodies in NE appeared within the first week of onset of symptoms and persisted for long periods of time as seen in KHF. The time from the onset of the illness until maximum antibody titre was recorded varied from 9 days to 1 month. On an average, the level of the antibody titres measured in NE was lower than that usually encountered in the Korean disease. The results indicate a close antigenic relationship between the KHF and NE agents and demonstrate that the reliability of our new spot slide method is similar to that of another previously reported and more laborious immunofluorescence method using lung from infected rodents as antigen source.
