Search results for "Virology"

Spontaneous Remission of Recalcitrant Warts in Girls After Human Papillomavirus Vaccination

2016

Diagnosing HIV infection using flow cytometry: From antigenic analyses to a specifically dedicated bead-based assay to measure viral load.

2009

SINCE the discovery of HIV in 1984 (1,2), millions have been infected and have died of AIDS. In 2006, the World Health Organization identified 40 million HIV-infected subjects, noting that antiretroviral therapy was required throughout the world (Fig. 1; http://www.who.int/hiv/data/en/index.html). Today, the situation is very similar and the HIV pandemic remains a major world health problem (3). The treatment of AIDS with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) involves regular monitoring of different blood parameters, requiring the development of convenient and accurate methods that can evaluate HIV infection even in resource-poor countries (4,5). In addition to CD4 cell count, which …

The international Ebola response: heroes and bystanders in the chronicle of an epidemic foretold.

2014

Antigens and immunoevasins: opponents in cytomegalovirus immune surveillance

2002

CD8+ T cells are the main effector cells for the immune control of cytomegaloviruses. To subvert this control, human and mouse cytomegaloviruses each encode a set of immune-evasion proteins, referred to here as immunoevasins, which interfere specifically with the MHC class I pathway of antigen processing and presentation. Although the concerted action of immunoevasins prevents the presentation of certain viral peptides, other viral peptides escape this blockade conditionally or constitutively and thereby provide the molecular basis of immune surveillance by CD8+ T cells. The definition of viral antigenic peptides that are presented despite the presence of immunoevasins adds a further dimens…

Methodological Issues in the Baffling Relationship Between Hepatitis C Virus and Non Hodgkin’s Lymphomas

2003

The association between Hepatitis C Virus infection and B-cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has been the matter of several studies: they showed disagreeing results with a marked regional variability. In this paper we present a review of the literature, highlighting methodological issues and main statistically critical aspects. Review suggests that studies were often not methodologically well approached. Moreover, we present main results from an original case-control study conducted in Italy, in an area of high endemicity of Hepatitis C Virus infection. In particular, we put attention in selection of a properly matching control group and in the role of age as a confounding variable.

RATIONAL DESIGN OF ANTI-HERPES VIRUS ANTI-METABOLITES

1979

Publisher Summary This chapter presents rational design of anti-herpes virus anti-metabolites. Herpesviruses, having DNA as their genetic material, are usually divided into type 1 and type 2 by antigenic differences and by biochemical markers. Herpesviruses are capable to persist in the host they infect, and around 75 % of those persons who were primary infected are afflicted during their lives with recurrent herpetic eruptions. The herpesviruses contain genetic information for the inhibition of the host cell metabolism; but at low multiplicities of infection the infected cells make interferon only. The spectrum of antiviral substances is large. However, only few compounds have been shown t…

Raman Spectroscopic Signatures of Echovirus 1 Uncoating

2014

ABSTRACT In recent decades, Raman spectroscopy has entered the biological and medical fields. It enables nondestructive analysis of structural details at the molecular level and has been used to study viruses and their constituents. Here, we used Raman spectroscopy to study echovirus 1 (EV1), a small, nonenveloped human pathogen, in two different uncoating states induced by heat treatments. Raman signals of capsid proteins and RNA genome were observed from the intact virus, the uncoating intermediate, and disrupted virions. Transmission electron microscopy data revealed general structural changes between the studied particles. Compared to spectral characteristics of proteins in the intact v…

HPV group- and type-specific concordance in HPV infected sexual couples.

2007

The concordance of human papillomavirus (HPV) groups and types was evaluated in 45 sexual couples with both partners HPV infected, by analyzing cervical samples from women and three genital sites (penile brushing, urethral brushing, and semen) from men. When grouping HPV types, no significant HPV group sharing was found between partners, either considering samples from any male site (concordance: 55.5%; P = 0.11) or from each site (concordance by penile brushing, 37.8%; urethral brushing, 24.5%; semen, 22.3%; P > 0.05). Examining individual HPV types, using samples from any male site, concordance was found in 29 (64.4%; P = 0.036) couples; significant concordance was evident for 16 HPV geno…

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-specific CD4+ T lymphocyte response in AIDS patients with no past or current HCMV disease following HAART.

2003

Abstract Background: The incidence of Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) end-organ disease has dramatically decreased since the implementation of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAARTs), but the precise immune mechanism whereby HCMV is controlled remains to be elucidated. Objectives: To investigate the effect of (HAART) on CD4 + T-cell immunity to HCMV in AIDS patients with no past or current HCMV disease. Study design: Seventeen patients were prospectively examined for CD4 + (CD45RO + and CD45 RA + ) T-cell counts (flow cytometry), HIV RNA load (Amplicor HIV test), HCMV leukoDNAemia and HCMV DNA in urine (nested PCR), lymphoproliferative response (LPR) to HCMV, phytohemagglutinin (PHA) a…

Assessment of human cytomegalovirus specific T cell immunity in human immunodeficiency virus infected patients in different disease stages following …

2004

T cell immunity to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) was assessed in HAART-treated HIV-1 infected patients (9 asymptomatic, CDC group A; and 22 symptomatic, CDC group B), and in eight HIV-1 long term non-progressors. Patients were either prospectively or cross-sectionally examined for CD4(+) T cell counts, HIV RNA load, HCMV leukoDNAemia, HCMV DNA in urine, lymphoproliferative response (LPR) to HCMV and phytohemagglutinin (PHA), and cytokine secretion (IFN-gamma and IL-4) by HCMV-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) cultures. No patient either progressed to clinical AIDS or developed HCMV active infection during the study period. Twenty-nine patients responded to HAART, though 12 …