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 …
Sushi protects mosquitoes from lethal virus infections Read More »
A major goal of viral oncotherapy – the use of viruses to destroy tumors – is to design viruses that kill tumor cells but not normal cells. Two adenoviruses provide perfect examples of how this specificity can be achieved. Adenovirus CG0070, designed to treat bladder cancer, and adenovirus Oncorine, for head and neck tumors, replicate …
It is the first week in May, which means that the spring semester has just ended at Columbia University, and my annual virology course is over. Each year I teach an introductory undergraduate virology course that is organized around basic principles, including how virus particles are built, how they replicate, how they cause disease, and how to prevent …
Rhinovirus is the most frequent cause of the common cold, and the virus itself is quite common: there are over 160 types, classified into 3 species. The cell receptor has just been identified for the rhinovirus C species, which can cause more severe illness than members of the A or B species: it is cadherin-related family …
About eight percent of human DNA is viral: it consists of retroviral genomes produced by infections that occurred many years ago. These endogenous retroviruses are passed from parent to child in our DNA. Some of these viral genomes are activated for a brief time during human embryogenesis, suggesting that they may play a role in development. …
Retroviral influence on human embryonic development Read More »
