The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved the first gene therapy, Kymriah, to treat B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It uses a lentivirus to modify the patient’s T cells to kill tumor cells. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL, is caused by uncontrolled growth of B cells, which normally produce antibodies to fight off infections. It …
Plasmids have been discovered that can move from cell to cell within membrane vesicles in a species of Archaea (link to paper). They provide clues about the origin of virus particles. Electron microscope analysis of the culture medium from Halobrum lacusprofundi R1S1, an Archaeal strain from Antarctica, revealed spherical particles which were subsequently shown to …
Not long after their discovery, viruses that infect bacteria – bacteriophages – were considered as therapeutic agents for treating infections. Despite many years of research on so-called phage therapy, clinical trials have produced conflicting results. They might be explained in part by the results of a new study which show that the host innate immune system …
There aren’t enough human organs to meet the needs for transplantation, so we have turned to pigs. Unfortunately pig cells contain porcine endogenous retroviruses, PERVS, which could infect the transplant recipient, leading to tumor formation. But why worry? Just use CRISPR to purge the PERVs. The genomes of many species on Earth are littered with endogenous …
The short answer to the question posed in the title of this blog is: we don’t know. Why would we even consider that a prior dengue virus infection would increase the severity of a Zika virus infection? The first time you are infected with dengue virus, you are likely to have a mild disease involving …
Does prior dengue virus infection exacerbate Zika virus disease? Read More »
Frogs don’t get flu (as far as I know) but their skin contains a peptide that inhibits the replication of influenza virus (link to paper). Frog skin contains host defense peptides (HDPs), part of the innate immune defenses of many species. They were first found in amphibians by Michael Zasloff, who, as part of his …
