Search results for "virus infection"
showing 10 items of 797 documents
Hepatitis E Virus Detection in Liver Tissue from Patients with Suspected Drug-Induced Liver Injury
2015
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is increasingly recognized as a cause of acute hepatitis in the industrialized world. We aimed to determine the frequency of acute Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in cases of suspected drug-induced liver injury (DILI), mainly a diagnosis of exclusion. To this aim, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) liver tissues of all cases routinely processed in our institute during a 2 ½ years period in which DILI was amongst the differential diagnoses (157 liver biopsies, one liver explant) were subjected to semi-nested RT-PCR for the detection of hepatitis E virus (HEV) RNA. Histopathology was re-evaluated on all cases tested positive. HEV RNA was detectable in…
Slow Infection due to Lowering the Amount of Intact versus Empty Particles Is a Characteristic Feature of Coxsackievirus B5 Dictated by the Structura…
2019
Enterovirus B species typically cause a rapid cytolytic infection leading to efficient release of progeny viruses. However, they are also capable of persistent infections in tissues, which are suggested to contribute to severe chronic states such as myocardial inflammation and type 1 diabetes. In order to understand the factors contributing to differential infection strategies, we constructed a chimera by combining the capsid proteins from fast-cytolysis-causing echovirus 1 (EV1) with nonstructural proteins from coxsackievirus B5 (CVB5), which shows persistent infection in RD cells. The results showed that the chimera behaved similarly to parental EV1, leading to efficient cytolysis in both…
Hydrophobic pocket targeting probes for enteroviruses
2015
Visualization and tracking of viruses without compromising their functionality is crucial in order to understand virus targeting to cells and tissues, and to understand the subsequent subcellular steps leading to virus uncoating and replication. Enteroviruses are important human pathogens causing a vast number of acute infections, and are also suggested to contribute to the development of chronic diseases like type I diabetes. Here, we demonstrate a novel method to target site-specifically the hydrophobic pocket of enteroviruses. A probe, a derivative of Pleconaril, was developed and conjugated to various labels that enabled the visualization of enteroviruses under light and electron micros…
A European multicentre evaluation of detection and typing methods for human enteroviruses and parechoviruses using RNA transcripts
2020
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection has become the gold standard for diagnosis and typing of enterovirus (EV) and human parechovirus (HPeV) infections. Its effectiveness depends critically on using the appropriate sample types and high assay sensitivity as viral loads in cerebrospinal fluid samples from meningitis and sepsis clinical presentation can be extremely low. This study evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of currently used commercial and in‐house diagnostic and typing assays. Accurately quantified RNA transcript controls were distributed to 27 diagnostic and 12 reference laboratories in 17 European countries for blinded testing. Transcripts represented the four human EV…
Early entry events in Echovirus 30 infection
2020
Echovirus 30 (E30), a member of the enterovirus B species, is a major cause of viral meningitis, targeting children and adults alike. While it is a frequently isolated enterovirus and the cause of several outbreaks all over the world, surprisingly little is known regarding its entry and replication strategy within cells. In this study, we used E30 strain Bastianni (E30B) generated from an infectious cDNA clone in order to study early entry events during infection in human RD cells. E30B required the newly discovered Fc echovirus receptor (FcRn) for successful infection, but not the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) or decay-accelerating factor (DAF), although an interaction with …
An ethical algorithm for rationing life sustaining treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic
2020
The burning ethical question raised by the COVID-19 pandemic is how to deal fairly and ethically with a large number of patients simultaneously becoming critically unwell. Across the world, in both developed and developing countries, health systems are grappling with the possibility or the reality that the demand for intensive medical care will outstrip availability. There is a need for ethical guidelines on how to allocate treatment, but such guidelines are potentially highly controversial.1 In this commentary, we set out a simple algorithm (Figure 1), including what we take to be the essential ethical principles that ought to guide resource allocation in any country or setting as well as …
Comprehensive Overview on Multiple Strategies Fighting COVID-19
2020
Lately, myriad of novel viruses have emerged causing epidemics such as SARS, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2, leading to high mortality rates worldwide. Thus, these viruses represented a challenging threat to mankind, especially considering the miniscule data available at our disposal regarding these novel viruses. The entire world established coordinative relations in research projects regarding drug and vaccine development on the external range, whereas on the internal range, all countries declared it an emergency case through imposing different restrictions related to their border control, large gatherings, school attendance, and most social activities. Pandemic combating plans prioritized all sect…
Dental Public Health Landscape: Challenges, Technological Innovation and Opportunities in the 21st Century and COVID-19 Pandemic
2020
The convergent forces of rising costs, growing consumerism, expensive new treatments, sociodemographic shifts and increasing health disparities are exerting intense and unsustainable pressures on healthcare systems. As with the other health domains, these disruptive forces demand new approaches and delivery models for oral healthcare. Technological innovations and practices borrowed from the e-commerce and tech sectors could facilitate the move to a sustainable 21(st) century oral healthcare system, one that delivers high-quality, value-based care to wider groups of patients. The broad reach of mobile technologies and changing digital lifestyles provide unique opportunities for using remote…
Electropherotyping of human rotaviruses: An epidemiological survey of rotavirus infections in Sicily
1986
An electrophoretic analysis of rotavirus RNA segments was carried out on 522 faecal specimens, obtained from children hospitalized in Sicily in the period 1981/85. One hundred and one viral isolates could be characterized with respect to the electrophoretic pattern of their genomic RNAs. This analysis revealed that in 1981/82 different electropherotypes cocirculated in the infant population. In 1983 one of the patterns became prevalent; in 1984/85 only one electropherotype was detected, both in Palermo and Catania specimens. The serotyping showed that all viral strains with the prevalent electropherotype were subgroup II and serotype 1. These results contrast with the extensive genome varia…
Animal models of Multiple Sclerosis
2015
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) which involves a complex interaction between immune system and neural cells. Animal modeling has been critical for addressing MS pathogenesis. The three most characterized animal models of MS are (1) the experimental autoimmune/allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE); (2) the virally-induced chronic demyelinating disease, known as Theiler׳s murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) infection and (3) the toxin-induced demyelination. All these models, in a complementary way, have allowed to reach a good knowledge of the pathogenesis of MS. Specifically, EAE is the model which better reflects the autoimmu…