A Simplified Introduction to Virus Propagation Using Maple’s Turtle Graphics Package Suitable for Children

Author(s):  
Eugenio Roanes-Lozano ◽  
Eugenio Roanes-Macías
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Ling Chang ◽  
Yu-Wen Liao ◽  
Min-Hsuan Chen ◽  
Sui-Yuan Chang ◽  
Yao-Ting Huang ◽  
...  

AbstractThe reciprocal interactions between pathogens and hosts are complicated and profound. A comprehensive understanding of these interactions is essential for developing effective therapies against infectious diseases. Interferon responses induced upon virus infection are critical for establishing host antiviral innate immunity. Here, we provide a molecular mechanism wherein isoform switching of the host IKKε gene, an interferon-associated molecule, leads to alterations in IFN production during EV71 infection. We found that IKKε isoform 2 (IKKε v2) is upregulated while IKKε v1 is downregulated in EV71 infection. IKKε v2 interacts with IRF7 and promotes IRF7 activation through phosphorylation and translocation of IRF7 in the presence of ubiquitin, by which the expression of IFNβ and ISGs is elicited and virus propagation is attenuated. We also identified that IKKε v2 is activated via K63-linked ubiquitination. Our results suggest that host cells induce IKKε isoform switching and result in IFN production against EV71 infection. This finding highlights a gene regulatory mechanism in pathogen-host interactions and provides a potential strategy for establishing host first-line defense against pathogens.


2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-109
Author(s):  
Yun-Sook Lim ◽  
Han N. Mai ◽  
Lap P. Nguyen ◽  
Sang Min Kang ◽  
Dongseob Tark ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianna Caterino ◽  
Monica Gelzo ◽  
Stefano Sol ◽  
Roberta Fedele ◽  
Anna Annunziata ◽  
...  

AbstractIn recent months, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread throughout the world. COVID-19 patients show mild, moderate or severe symptoms with the latter ones requiring access to specialized intensive care. SARS-CoV-2 infections, pathogenesis and progression have not been clearly elucidated yet, thus forcing the development of many complementary approaches to identify candidate cellular pathways involved in disease progression. Host lipids play a critical role in the virus life, being the double-membrane vesicles a key factor in coronavirus replication. Moreover, lipid biogenesis pathways affect receptor-mediated virus entry at the endosomal cell surface and modulate virus propagation. In this study, targeted lipidomic analysis coupled with proinflammatory cytokines and alarmins measurement were carried out in serum of COVID-19 patients characterized by different severity degree. Serum IL-26, a cytokine involved in IL-17 pathway, TSLP and adiponectin were measured and correlated to lipid COVID-19 patient profiles. These results could be important for the classification of the COVID-19 disease and the identification of therapeutic targets.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 523
Author(s):  
Jacques Piazzola ◽  
William Bruch ◽  
Christelle Desnues ◽  
Philippe Parent ◽  
Christophe Yohia ◽  
...  

Human behaviors probably represent the most important causes of the SARS-Cov-2 virus propagation. However, the role of virus transport by aerosols—and therefore the influence of atmospheric conditions (temperature, humidity, type and concentration of aerosols)—on the spread of the epidemic remains an open and still debated question. This work aims to study whether or not the meteorological conditions related to the different aerosol properties in continental and coastal urbanized areas might influence the atmospheric transport of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Our analysis focuses on the lockdown period to reduce the differences in the social behavior and highlight those of the weather conditions. As an example, we investigated the contamination cases during March 2020 in two specific French areas located in both continental and coastal areas with regard to the meteorological conditions and the corresponding aerosol properties, the optical depth (AOD) and the Angstrom exponent provided by the AERONET network. The results show that the analysis of aerosol ground-based data can be of interest to assess a virus survey. We found that moderate to strong onshore winds occurring in coastal regions and inducing humid environment and large sea-spray production episodes coincides with smaller COVID-19 contamination rates. We assume that the coagulation of SARS-Cov-2 viral particles with hygroscopic salty sea-spray aerosols might tend to inhibit its viral infectivity via possible reaction with NaCl, especially in high relative humidity environments typical of maritime sites.


1977 ◽  
Vol 55 (15) ◽  
pp. 2122-2136 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. W. J. Ragetli ◽  
M. Elder

An unknown virus was isolated from a young red clover plant (Trifolium pratense) with a bright yellow leaf mottle and subsequently was isolated from five other field clover plants with milder symptoms growing in three locations. In the laboratory, red clover became systemically infected by the virus only when the plants were kept between 10 and 16 °C after inoculation, and symptoms were mild. Crimson clover (T. incarnatum) was readily invaded at room temperature, and survivors of the initial shock reaction were severely mottled. White clover (T. repens) and Alsike clover (T. hybridum) did not become systemically infected under either temperature regime. The symptom common to all four species, necrotic spots in the inoculated primary leaves, suggested the name clover primary leaf necrosis virus. Among the nine leguminous and six non-leguminous host species, bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) was best suited for virus propagation, and cucumber (Cucumis sativus) was best suited for quantitative assay and detection.The virus was characterized by a single sedimenting species of spherical nucleoprotein particles with a sedimentation value, S20.w, of 136–137, an average diameter of 36 nm, and a specific extinction, E260 nm1%, 1 cm, of 58.15. The nucleic acid was of the ribose type and constituted 21% of the weight of the virion. Activity was lost from crude juice at 65 °C and from purified suspensions at 85 °C, with about 10% activity persisting between 60–70 °C. Two electrophoretic components were isolated from purified preparations. They induced identical symptoms in three hosts, but one replicated both components in bean and had more antigenic determinants than the other, which replicated itself only. The virus was weakly antigenic inducing an antiserum with titer of 128. Some of its in vitro properties were similar to those of carnation ringspot virus, but the two viruses were serologically unrelated. Nor was this virus serologically related to any of 15 other spherical viruses tested.


2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 1964-1976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexej Prassolov ◽  
Heinz Hohenberg ◽  
Tatyana Kalinina ◽  
Carola Schneider ◽  
Lucyna Cova ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT All hepadnaviruses known so far have a very limited host range, restricted to their natural hosts and a few closely related species. This is thought to be due mainly to sequence divergence in the large envelope protein and species-specific differences in host components essential for virus propagation. Here we report an infection of cranes with a novel hepadnavirus, designated CHBV, that has an unexpectedly broad host range and is only distantly evolutionarily related to avihepadnaviruses of related hosts. Direct DNA sequencing of amplified CHBV DNA as well a sequencing of cloned viral genomes revealed that CHBV is most closely related to, although distinct from, Ross' goose hepatitis B virus (RGHBV) and slightly less closely related to duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV). Phylogenetically, cranes are very distant from geese and ducks and are most closely related to herons and storks. Naturally occurring hepadnaviruses in the last two species are highly divergent in sequence from RGHBV and DHBV and do not infect ducks or do so only marginally. In contrast, CHBV from crane sera and recombinant CHBV produced from LMH cells infected primary duck hepatocytes almost as efficiently as DHBV did. This is the first report of a rather broad host range of an avihepadnavirus. Our data imply either usage of similar or identical entry pathways and receptors by DHBV and CHBV, unusual host and virus adaptation mechanisms, or divergent evolution of the host genomes and cellular components required for virus propagation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 90 (6) ◽  
pp. 2794-2805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giao V. Q. Tran ◽  
Trang T. D. Luong ◽  
Eun-Mee Park ◽  
Jong-Wook Kim ◽  
Jae-Woong Choi ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTHepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease and is highly dependent on cellular proteins for virus propagation. To identify the cellular factors involved in HCV propagation, we recently performed protein microarray assays using the HCV nonstructural 5A (NS5A) protein as a probe. Of 90 cellular protein candidates, we selected the soluble resistance-related calcium-binding protein (sorcin) for further characterization. Sorcin is a calcium-binding protein and is highly expressed in certain cancer cells. We verified that NS5A interacted with sorcin through domain I of NS5A, and phosphorylation of the threonine residue 155 of sorcin played a crucial role in protein interaction. Small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown of sorcin impaired HCV propagation. Silencing of sorcin expression resulted in a decrease of HCV assembly without affecting HCV RNA and protein levels. We further demonstrated that polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1)-mediated phosphorylation of sorcin was increased by NS5A. We showed that both phosphorylation and calcium-binding activity of sorcin were required for HCV propagation. These data indicate that HCV modulates sorcin activity via NS5A protein for its own propagation.IMPORTANCESorcin is a calcium-binding protein and regulates intracellular calcium homeostasis. HCV NS5A interacts with sorcin, and phosphorylation of sorcin is required for protein interaction. Gene silencing of sorcin impaired HCV propagation at the assembly step of the HCV life cycle. Sorcin is phosphorylated by PLK1 via protein interaction. We showed that sorcin interacted with both NS5A and PLK1, and PLK1-mediated phosphorylation of sorcin was increased by NS5A. Moreover, calcium-binding activity of sorcin played a crucial role in HCV propagation. These data provide evidence that HCV regulates host calcium metabolism for virus propagation, and thus manipulation of sorcin activity may represent a novel therapeutic target for HCV.


1984 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Richtsmeier

The interferons (IFNs) are a group of proteins produced by cells of all vertebrate animals in response to a variety of stimuli. The ability to stimulate antiviral resistance, which was the first observed property of the IFNs, is still of great interest and remains the basic criterion by which the interferons are measured 1 (even into the most recent era of radioimmunoassay systems). It is the recent clinical uses of these substances as antineoplastic agents that has brought them to the attention of clinicians and the public in general. The IFN molecules exert their effects, much as hormones do, by attaching to specific receptors on other cells of the same species. Once attached, the IFNs induce cells to undergo a series of biochemical changes that renders them resistant to further virus propagation. To be an IFN, a substance must be a protein devoid of accompanying nucleic acid or endotoxin (both of which are interferon inducers). Treated cells must undergo de novo RNA and protein synthetic activity to acquire antiviral resistance.


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