Virology
Does Herpes Simplex Virus Cause Alzheimer’s Disease?
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder and the most common form of dementia. Although its exact cause is unclear, an increasing body of evidence suggests that an infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV) may contribute to onset of AD later in life. Both types of HSV (HSV-1 and HSV-2) infect …
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Dogma Does Not Belong in Science
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey According to established scientific dogma, infection of cells with HIV-1 leads to delivery of the viral capsid into the cell cytoplasm, followed by “uncoating” of the capsid to release the single-stranded RNA genome. A viral-encoded enzyme called reverse transcriptase then catalyzes the conversion of the viral RNA into a single strand …
Let’s Talk About Measles
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey Recent news headlines have been featuring multiple outbreaks of measles across the globe, and an announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dated January 25, 2024, also reported 23 confirmed cases in the US over the past month. These outbreaks happen every few years and are usually triggered by …
The Problem of Original Antigenic Sin
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey Once the innate immune system senses a never-seen-before pathogen as new, it engages elements of the adaptive immune response. These adaptive immunity elements coordinate over time to develop a response that protects from re-infection and disease upon a second exposure to the same pathogen. The second exposure will immediately lead to …
A Satellite Takes a Bite of Phage
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey Satellite viruses lack one or more of the elements needed to replicate, and thus they depend on co-infection with a helper virus that can provide the missing components. In a well-known example of a satellite-helper system, Hepatitis D virus requires the presence of its helper Hepatitis B virus to make copies …
A Nobel Discovery
By Gertrud U. Rey | | Basic virology, Gertrud Rey
by Gertrud U. Rey On October 2nd, 2023, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced the award of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. The decision was based on a series of fundamental discoveries that led to the development of the COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Katalin …
David Tuller
Trial By Error: Interview with Karen Hargrave, Co-Founder of #ThereForME
By David Tuller, DrPH Karen Hargrave is co-founder of an advocacy campaign called #ThereForME, which was launched this past summer to draw public awareness to the UK’s lack of care and treatment and to call “for an NHS [National Health Service] that’s there for people with ME and Long Covid.” The campaign has drawn significant …
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Trial By Error: My Letter to BMJ Seeking Correction to Editorial on REGAIN Trial of Mental-and-Physical-Health Rehab for Long Covid
By David Tuller, DrPH I have recovered sufficiently from my post-election coma to send off another of my irritating letters to journals–this one to The BMJ. As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, The BMJ has corrected a major paper: “Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme …
Trial By Error: Professor Chris Ponting on “Replicated Blood-Based Biomarkers” for ME in Big Data Pre-Print Study
By David Tuller, DrPH Along with several colleagues, Professor Chris Ponting, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh and a leading ME/CFS researcher, recently posted a pre-print called “Replicated blood-based biomarkers for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis not explicable by inactivity.” (A pre-print is a paper that has not yet been formally peer-reviewed.) For this analysis, the investigators …
Trial By Error: The BMJ Corrects REGAIN Study’s Expansive Claims; Results Only Applicable to Post-Hospitalized Long Covid Patients
By David Tuller, DrPH In February, The BMJ published a study called Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme for adults with post-covid-19 condition (REGAIN study): multicentre randomised controlled trial.” (Post-Covid-19 Condition, or PCC, is one of many current definitions for Long Covid.)The study, led by a team from …
Trial By Error: My Tour of Ireland, Through Wind and Rain; Slides of My Talk
By David Tuller, DrPH Last month, I took a quick speaking tour around Ireland at the invitation of the Irish ME/CFS Association. I first became acquainted with Tom Kindlon, the association’s assistant chairperson, about ten years ago. I was beginning to look into the background of the PACE trial, which purported to have proven the …
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Trial By Error: Guardian Columnist George Monbiot on the “Bizarre Cult” at the London-Based Science Media Centre
By David Tuller, DrPH October is a crowdfunding month at University of California, Berkeley. If you’d like to support my work, you can make a donation to the university (tax-deductible for US taxpayers) here. Last week, Guardian columnist George Monbiot wrote another scathing piece about the failure of the UK health care system to address the …