Viruses, Volume 2, Issue 8

Chronic Hepatitis C infection is a global health problem. While primary infection is often inapparent, it becomes chronic in most cases. Chronic infection with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) frequently leads to liver cirrhosis or liver cancer. Consequently,...

The drastic increase in the number of coronaviruses discovered and coronavirus genomes being sequenced have given us an unprecedented opportunity to perform genomics and bioinformatics analysis on this family of viruses. Coronaviruses possess the lar...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects over 130 million people worldwide and is a major cause of liver disease. No vaccine is available. Novel specific drugs for HCV are urgently required, since the standard-of-care treatment of pegylated interferon combine...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a serious and growing threat to human health. The current treatment provides limited efficacy and is poorly tolerated, highlighting the urgent medical need for novel therapeutics. The membrane-targeted NS3 protein...

While vaccines are the primary public health response to seasonal and pandemic flu, short of a universal vaccine there are inherent limitations to this approach. Antiviral drugs provide valuable alternative options for treatment and prophylaxis of in...

Recent progress in defining the molecular mechanisms of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) entry affords the opportunity to exploit new viral and host targets for therapeutic intervention. Entry inhibitors would limit the expansion of the infected cell reservoi...

Dendritic cells initiate and sustain immune responses by migrating to sites of pathogenic insult, transporting antigens to lymphoid tissues and signaling immune specific activation of T cells through the formation of the immunological synapse. Dendri...

Adenovirus (Ad) vectors, in particular those of the serotype 5, are highly attractive for a wide range of gene therapy, vaccine and virotherapy applications (as discussed in further detail in this issue). Wild type Ad5 virus can replicate in numerous...

A relatively new aspect of HIV-1 biology is the ability of the virus to infect cells by direct cellular contacts across a specialized structure, the virological synapse. This process was recently described through live cell imaging. Together with the...

Infection with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) continues to be a major global health problem. To overcome the limitations of current therapies using interferon-a in combination with ribavirin, there is a need to develop drugs that specifically block viral pr...