X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare neurologic disease caused by a defect in a gene required for normal ABCD1 transporter function. The lack of this function leads to progressive demyelination, severe neurologic disease and death in males, often in childhood. ALD disease progression can be controlled by allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in those patients …
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health recently identified a mutation in 2009 H1N1 influenza virus isolated from two patients who died and one with severe disease. It has been suggested that this mutation, which causes a change from the amino acid aspartic acid to glycine at position 225 of the viral HA protein (D225G), could …
The D225G change in 2009 H1N1 influenza virus is not a concern Read More »
Recently I began experiments to understand how zinc inhibits rhinovirus replication, and I promised to document my findings on the pages of this blog. Here are the results of the second plaque assay. In the last experiment I confirmed the finding that 0.1 mM ZnCl2 inhibits plaque formation by rhinovirus type 1A. Based on the …
As week 46 of 2009 comes to a close, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that influenza has peaked in the US. That conclusion is based on the agency’s influenza surveillance program, summarized in this figure: Does this mean that pandemic influenza is over? Absolutely not. This is just the second wave, sparked …
The finding that a retrovirus, XMRV, is associated with chronic fatigue syndrome has lead to the suggestion that the disease might be treated with some of the antiviral drugs used to treat AIDS. The integrase inhibitor Raltegravir has been found to block the replication of murine leukemia virus, which is highly related to XMRV. But …
Raltegravir inhibits murine leukemia virus: implications for chronic fatigue syndrome? Read More »
At the end of 1981, the year that I had shown that cloned poliovirus DNA is infectious, BBC Radio asked me to do an interview about the work. The name of the show was Science Now but I can’t recall who was the host. Whoever he was, he didn’t understand what I had done and …
