Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are rare human neurodegenerative disorders that are caused by infectious proteins called prions. A naturally occurring variant of the human prion has been found that completely protects against the disease. A protective variant of the prion protein was discovered in the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. Beginning in the early 1900s, the prion disease kuru spread among Fore women and children as …
On episode #340 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiV teams reviews a MERS-coronavirus serosurvey and an outbreak in South Korea, and constraints on measles virus antigenic variation. You can find TWiV #340 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
Did you ever wonder what different virus infections you have had in your lifetime? Now you can find out with just a drop of your blood and about $25. Immune defense systems of many hosts produce antibodies in response to virus infections. These large proteins, which are generally virus specific, can block or inhibit virus infection, and …
On episode #339 of the science show This Week in Virology, tre TWiV amici present three snippets and a side of sashimi: how herpesvirus inhibits host cell gene expression by disrupting transcription termination. You can find TWiV #339 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
Many microbes live in extreme environments, encountering conditions that are very hot, very cold, highly acidic, or very salty. The viruses that infect such microbes must also be able to retain infectivity in extreme conditions. How do they do it? Clues come from the observations that the genomes of viruses that infect Archaea in extreme …
As far as I know, mosquitoes do not eat sushi. But mosquito cells have proteins with sushi repeat domains, and these proteins protect the brain from lethal virus infections. Mosquitoes are vectors for the transmission of many human viral diseases, including yellow fever, West Nile disease, Japanese encephalitis, and dengue hemorrhagic fever. Many mosquito-borne viruses enter the human central …
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