Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a highly prevalent beta-herpesvirus and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality following hematopoietic and solid organ transplant, as well as the leading viral cause of congenital abnormalities. A key feature of the pathogenesis of HCMV is the ability of the virus to establish a latent infection in hematopoietic progenitor and myeloid lineage cells.
Odilorhabdins (ODLs) constitute a novel antibiotic family with promising properties for treating problematic multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections. ODLs are 10-mer linear cationic peptides inhibiting bacterial translation by binding to the small subunit of the ribosome.
Rhesus macaques are a critical animal model for preclinical testing of HIV-1 vaccine and prevention approaches. However, HIV-1 does not replicate in rhesus macaques, and thus, chimeric simian-human immunodeficiency viruses (SHIVs), which encode HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins (Envs), are used as surrogate challenge viruses to infect rhesus macaques for modeling HIV-1 infection.
In nutrient-poor habitats, competition for limited resources is thought to select for organisms with an enhanced ability to scavenge nutrients and utilize them efficiently. Such adaptations characterize the cyanobacterium
Prochlorococcus
, the most abundant photosynthetic organism in the nutrient-limited open ocean.
Impeding the catabolism of the inositol pyrophosphate (IPP) signaling molecule IP8 is cytotoxic to fission yeast. Here, by performing a genetic suppressor screen, we identified several cellular proteins required for IPP toxicosis.
Typhoid fever is a devastating disease that kills more than 115,000 people every year and is caused by
Salmonella
Typhi. Typhoid toxin, exclusively produced by
S
.
The current theory of cellular defense against oxidative damage identifies antioxidant enzymes as primary defenders against ROS, with MnSOD being the preeminent superoxide (O
2
•−
) scavenger. However, MnSOD is shown to be dispensable both for radiation resistance and longevity in model organisms, the bacterium
Deinococcus radiodurans
and the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans
.
SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped virus that requires membrane fusion for entry into host cells. Since the fusion process is relatively conserved among enveloped viruses, we tested our HCV fusion inhibitors, dichlorcyclizine and fluoxazolevir, against SARS-CoV-2.
Feo, a ferrous iron transport system composed of three proteins (FeoA, -B, and -C), is the most prevalent bacterial iron transporter. It plays an important role in iron acquisition in low-oxygen environments and some host-pathogen interactions.
African trypanosomes cause disease in humans and their livestock and are transmitted by tsetse flies. The insect ingests these parasites with its blood meal, but to be transmitted to another mammal, the trypanosome must undergo complex development within the tsetse fly and migrate from the insect's gut to its salivary glands.