Virology News

In this report we demonstrate that E.coli expressed Tre-recombinases, tagged either with the protein transduction domain (PTD) from the HIV-1 Tat trans-activator or the translocation motif (TLM) of the Hepatitis B virus PreS2 protein, were able to translocate efficiently into cells and showed significant recombination activity on HIV-1 LTR sequences. Tre activity was observed using episomal and stable integrated reporter constructs in transfected HeLa cells. Furthermore, the TLM-tagged enzyme was able to excise the full-length proviral DNA from chromosomal integration sites of HIV-1-infected HeLa and CEM-SS cells. The presented data confirm Tre-recombinase activity on integrated HIV-1 and provide the basis for the non-genetic transient application of engineered recombinases, which may be a valuable component of future HIV eradication strategies.

And a very nice journal club by Lucian Duvenage.

Being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS used to be a death sentence. Today, for many people, the disease is a chronic condition that can be managed with so-called antiretroviral drugs.  Drug treatment has helped people with HIV infection live long and near-normal lives. Now, as the HIV/AIDS population ages, they are facing a unique set of health challenges.

All the more reason for therapeutic vaccines....

Are sexual relations closely intertwined with oral health? Jo-Anne Jones, RDH, addresses that question by sharing some of the latest statistics regarding a possible connection between the human papillomavirus (HPV) and oral cancer.

A naturally-occurring harmless human virus may be able to boost the effects of two standard chemotherapy drugs in some cancer patients, according to early stage trial data published in Clinical Cancer Research.

RT3D, trade name Reolysin, is a new drug developed by Oncolytics Biotech Inc with preclinical and clinical studies conducted at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden Hospital. It is based on a virus (reovirus type 3 Dearing) that is found in almost all adults' respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts without causing any symptoms.

Reoviruses rule....

Opinion: The Risk of Forgoing Vaccines |...

"Given the direct benefit to the individual of immunity against disease, vaccination, is not completely altruistic. However, immunization provides a significant benefit to society. One can liken a human newborn, or a person who cannot get vaccinated, to a vulnerable bird with ticks on the top of its head. As individuals, we cannot fully protect these people from infectious disease, and instead we rely on herd immunity. If society is made up mostly of “suckers” that have expended the energy and cost to get vaccinated, then the vulnerable will be protected due to the absence or reduction of disease transmission. But if a significant percentage of individuals decides against vaccination, for one reason or another, we may lose herd immunity, and infectious disease will spread."

I cannot get over how stupid some people can be.  I certainly won't let their children play with my children - they might benefit from a herd imunity they are not entitled to.

Map of the latest alerts on infectious disease around the world...

Houston rabies case poses new questions about age-old illness
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At the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], she's called the "Texas wild child." She was a 17-year-old who had run away from home when she walked into a Houston hospital with a fever and puzzling neurological symptoms. Her name is veiled by medical privacy laws, as is the identity of her family back in Missouri; exactly how she was exposed to the virus that sickened her 3 years ago is a mystery. Where she is now, no one seems to know. Her disappearance is part of one of the area's most intriguing medical mysteries: The CDC says she is the only known person in the US to survive rabies after the onset of clinical symptoms, and without prior vaccination or intensive hospital care.

Good account of the current state of rabies therapy - or lack of it.

Image courtesy of Russell Kightley Media

A new study examining the link between the Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicella vaccination (MMRV) booster in 4 to 6 year old children found no link between the shot and febrile seizures.

Yet more reasons to GET YOUR CHILDREN VACCINATED!!

NanoViricides (OTC:NNVC) said Monday that the U.S. health regulator gave a "good roadmap" toward an investigational new drug (IND) application for the company's lead candidate FluCide, at a recent pre-IND meeting.
The previously announced meeting was held with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on March 29, as scheduled.
NanoViricides said the meeting focused on FluCide, designated as NV-INF-1, the company’s anti influenza drug.

Piranha flu...get it before it gets you!

Currently, HIV-infected individuals must stay on antiretroviral therapy for their entire lives, as the virus almost invariably reemerges when the drugs are withdrawn. Now, with an eye to purging the virus from its cellular hideouts, scientists here at the International Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) meeting in March have found new ways to lure HIV out of latent immune cells—a first step toward a long-term, drug-free functional cure.

Over 600,000 Apple Mac computers running on OS X have been infected with a flashback Trojan virus called BackDoor.Flashback.39. But how can you tell if your Mac has been infected with the Flashback Trojan virus?

So I count computer viruses as part of the stable - my Mac is dear to me!

In 2009, researchers reported that an AIDS vaccine had for the first time protected people against HIV. Since then, the researchers have been wondering, How did it work?

AIDS researchers have only been able to guess at what these critical weapons against HIV could be, which is partly why their efforts to create a vaccine have thus far been marked by a long line of failed attempts. But when the RV144 trial in Thailand showed promise in 2009, scientists finally had something to work with. The vaccine was only modestly effective — protecting just 31% of heterosexual adults from infection — especially compared with inoculations against other common infectious agents like measles or mumps, which are 95% to 98% effective. But it was a start.

Ummmmm...yes.  Well - sort of.  The vaccine was only marginally effective, and my opinion is that it may not have very much to say to us at all.

For the past 10–15 years, bats have attracted growing attention as reservoirs of emerging zoonotic viruses. This has been due to a combination of factors including the emergence of highly virulent zoonotic pathogens, such as Hendra, Nipah, SARS and Ebola viruses, and the high rate of detection of a large number of previously unknown viral sequences in bat specimens.

The safety, stability, and ability for repeat homologous vaccination makes the DNA vaccine platform an excellent candidate for an effective HIV-1 vaccine. However, the immunogenicity of early DNA vaccines did not translate from small animal models into larger non-human primates and was markedly lower than viral vectors. In addition to improvements to the DNA vector itself, delivery with electroporation, the inclusion of molecular adjuvants, and heterologous prime-boost strategies have dramatically improved the immunogenicity of DNA vaccines for HIV and currently makes them a leading platform with many areas warranting further research and clinical development.

Nice review - even if they don't mention our extended HIV vaccine group's work once...ah, the imperialism inherent in HIV vaccine research!

A new study suggests that the vaccine can significantly cut the likelihood of HPV-related disease even among women who have had surgery for cervical cancer caused by HPV.

Intriguing website to learn about practical infection prevention strategies through the nanobugs (tm). More than 50 cartoon microbes (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that entertain and educate.

Desperately simplistic, but fun.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (AMEX:INO) received a second grant by the U.S. Defence Department to fund bioterrorism synthetic vaccines program, the company said Monday.

The grant allows Inovio to advance development of a low-cost, non-invasive surface electroporation delivery device and test its utility with its novel synthetic DNA-based vaccines against viruses with a bioterrorism potential, including hanta, puumala,
arenavirus and pandemic influenza.

Good may come of the bioterror hype yet!