The past week brought an animated discussion triggered by an article in Obesity which reported the adipogenic effect of adenovirus type 36 infection in cultured cells. The press had a field day with headlines like ‘Can a common cold virus really make you fat’?. Reactions on Twitter and blogs ranged from disbelief to outrage to …
The innate immune system responds within minutes of infection to produce type I interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Interferons induce the synthesis of cell proteins with antiviral activity, and also shape the adaptive immune response by priming T cells. Despite the discovery of interferons over 50 years ago, only recently have we begun to understand how …
The success in treating AIDS with multiple combinations of three antiviral drugs is a model for the successful management of viral resistance. Can we expect that a deep arsenal of anti-influenza virus drugs will be developed? So far we have three antiviral drugs against influenza viruses. Most H3N2 strains are resistant to rimantidine, which targets …
Is that title correct? Arenaviruses have an RNA genome which is not known to be copied into DNA at any stage of the replication cycle. How could a DNA copy of this virus be produced and be inserted into the host genome? The RNA genome of retroviruses is converted to a DNA form during viral …
Integration of arenavirus DNA into the cell genome Read More »
In many viral infections, clinical symptoms such as fever, tissue damage, pain, and nausea are a consequence of the immune response. Damage caused by the immune system is known as immunopathology. For some viruses that do not directly kill cells (non-cytolytic viruses) the immune response is the main cause of disease. Immunopathology may be caused …
The cellular translation machinery is frequently modified in virus-infected cells. Antiviral defense systems or stress responses may be initiated to inhibit protein synthesis and restrict virus replication. On the other hand, many viral genomes encode proteins that modify the cellular translation apparatus to favor the production of viral proteins over those of the cell. One …
