Virology
Merkel cell polyomavirus, a new oncogenic human virus?
By Vincent Racaniello
None of the four human polymaviruses that were known in early 2008 - JC, BK, KI and WU - had been shown to cause cancer. The subsequent identification of a new polyomavirus associated with Merkel cell carcinoma demonstrates the type of evidence that is required to prove that a virus ...
TWiV #27: Leaving latency
By Vincent Racaniello
On episode #27 of the podcast "This Week in Virology", Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Saul Silverstein revisit an ebolavirus needlestick accident, and discuss the role of TLR3 in formation of Negri bodies, a New England college closed by norovirus gastroenteritis, hand, foot, and mouth disease outbreak in China, and the ...
How herpes simplex virus exits latency
By Vincent Racaniello
Many of us have experienced herpesvirus reactivation from latency. Suddenly a sore erupts on the lip, festers for a week, then subsides. Years later, for no apparent reason, it happens again. Did you ever wonder what causes these recurrent blisters? Herpes simplex viruses are associated with latent infections, a type ...
Hand, foot, and mouth disease outbreak in China
By Vincent Racaniello
An outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease in China has lead to 41,000 infections and 18 deaths this year. What is this disease and what causes it? Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a rather common viral infection of children. There were 80,000 recorded cases of the disease ...
Negri bodies and rabies
By Vincent Racaniello
Viral replication frequently leads to the accumulation of intracellular masses of virions or unassembled viral components in the cytoplasm or nucleus of the cell. These inclusion bodies often bear the name of the individual who discovered them - such as Guarnieri bodies in the cytoplasm of poxvirus infected cells, intranuclear ...