by Gertrud U. Rey It is currently not clear how long SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immunity lasts. The gold standard for determining the efficacy of a vaccine is the "challenge" study, which involves intentionally infecting immunized subjects with the pathogen against which they were immunized. Such studies are typically done in non-human ...

Influenza B viruses, unlike influenza A viruses, do not cause pandemics. There are many non-human animal reservoirs of influenza A viruses which provide gene segments that go towards making reassortant viruses that can infect humans. Influenza B viruses do not appear to have an animal reservoir other than humans - ...

Molnupiravir might be the first highly effective antiviral drug given emergency use authorization for treatment of COVID-19. Should we be concerned about the results of a recent study which show that the drug is mutagenic in cells? Molnupiravir is an orally available pro-drug of the nucleoside analog N4-hydroxycytidine (NHC). The ...

by Gertrud U. Rey Most people associate viruses with illness and suffering. After all, the word "virus" is derived from the Latin word for "poison." However, considering that the vast majority of viruses cause no illness and are actually beneficial to humans and the planet as a whole, this sentiment ...

Another excellent example of gain of function research is modification of a viral vector to make it more useful for human gene therapy. Adenovirus associated virus (AAV) is the most commonly used vector for a variety of gene therapy applications, including gene replacement and gene editing. These small viruses, which ...