Considerations for the Selection and Use of Disinfectants Against SARS-CoV-2 in a Health Care Setting.

Proper disinfection using adequate disinfecting agents will be necessary for infection control strategies against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, limited guidance exists on effective surface disinfectants or best practices for their use against severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2. We outlined a process of fully characterizing over 350 products on the Environmental Protection Agency List N, including pH, method of delivery, indication for equipment sterilization, and purchase availability. We then developed a streamlined set of guidelines to help rapidly evaluate and select suitable disinfectants from List N, including practicality, efficacy, safety, and cost/availability. This resource guides the evaluation of ideal disinfectants amidst practical considerations posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

miR-24 Inhibits cell proliferation by targeting E2F2, MYC, and other cell-cycle genes via binding to "seedless" 3'UTR microRNA recognition elements.

miR-24, upregulated during terminal differentiation of multiple lineages, inhibits cell-cycle progression. Antagonizing miR-24 restores postmitotic cell proliferation and enhances fibroblast proliferation, whereas overexpressing miR-24 increases the G1 compartment. The 248 mRNAs downregulated upon miR-24 overexpression are highly enriched for DNA repair and cell-cycle regulatory genes that form a direct interaction network with prominent nodes at genes that enhance (MYC, E2F2, CCNB1, and CDC2) or inhibit (p27Kip1 and VHL) cell-cycle progression. miR-24 directly regulates MYC and E2F2 and some genes that they transactivate. Enhanced proliferation from antagonizing miR-24 is abrogated by knocking down E2F2, but not MYC, and cell proliferation, inhibited by miR-24 overexpression, is rescued by miR-24-insensitive E2F2. Therefore, E2F2 is a critical miR-24 target. The E2F2 3'UTR lacks a predicted miR-24 recognition element. In fact, miR-24 regulates expression of E2F2, MYC, AURKB, CCNA2, CDC2, CDK4, and FEN1 by recognizing seedless but highly complementary sequences.

Lentiviral delivery of short hairpin RNAs protects CD4 T cells from multiple clades and primary isolates of HIV.

Viral heterogeneity is a major hurdle for potential therapeutic use of RNA interference (RNAi) against HIV-1. To determine the extent of RNAi tolerance to mutations, we tested 3 viral target sites with differing propensity for mutations: a highly variable rev sequence, a gag sequence conserved only among clade B isolates, and a vif sequence highly conserved across clades. Lentiviral expression of all 3 shRNAs inhibited replication of the homologous HIV(IIIB) strain. However, they differed in their ability to protect primary CD4 T cells against multiple isolates within and across HIV clades. The least conserved rev sequence inhibited only 2 of 5 clade B isolates. The gag sequence (conserved within clade B) protected 5 of 5 clade B isolates but not other clade viruses with 2 or 3 mutations in the central region. In contrast, the vif sequence, which was conserved across clades except for single mutations at positions 14 and 17, inhibited viruses from 5 different clades. Moreover, siRNAs with introduced mutations at sites of gag sequence polymorphisms showed reduced antiviral activity, whereas mutations in vif siRNA only modestly decreased silencing. Thus, although 1 or 2 mutations at peripheral sites are tolerated, mutations in the central target cleavage region abolish RNAi activity.