Marburg virus (MARV), the causative agent of Marburg virus disease, emerges sporadically in sub-Saharan Africa and is often fatal in humas. The natural reservoir for this zoonotic virus is the frugivorous Egyptian rousette bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus)...
High-consequence pathogens such as the Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa viruses are handled in maximum-containment biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories. Genetic material is often isolated from such viruses and subsequently removed from BSL-4 laboratories...
Mammarenaviruses cause chronic infections in rodents, which are their predominant natural hosts. Human infection with some of these viruses causes high-consequence disease, posing significant issues in public health. Currently, no FDA-licensed mammar...
The detection of high-consequence viral pathogens is essential for spillover prevention and reduction in transmission but is limited by the low sensitivity of next-generation sequencing technology. Low-titer field samples from a variety of hosts are...
Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which belongs to the Vesiculovirus genus of the family Rhabdoviridae, is a well studied livestock pathogen and prototypic non-segmented, negative-sense RNA virus. Although VSV is responsible for causing economically...
Nipah virus (NiV) and Hendra virus (HeV) are classified as high-consequence zoonotic viruses characterized by high pathogenicity and high mortality in animals and humans. Rapid diagnosis is essential to containing the outbreak. In this study, the hen...
African swine fever virus (ASFV) and classical swine fever virus (CSFV) are important transboundary animal diseases (TADs) affecting swine. ASFV is a large DNA virus with a genome size of 170–190+ kilobases (kB) belonging to the family Asfarvir...
Due to high mutation rates, populations of RNA viruses exist as a collection of closely related mutants known as a quasispecies. A consequence of error-prone replication is the potential for rapid adaptation of RNA viruses when a selective pressure i...
The error rate displayed during template copying to produce viral RNA progeny is a biologically relevant parameter of the replication complexes of viruses. It has consequences for virus–host interactions, and it represents the first step in the diver...
High consequence human pathogenic viruses must be handled at biosafety level 2, 3 or 4 and must be rendered non-infectious before they can be utilized for molecular or immunological applications at lower biosafety levels. Here we evaluate psoralen-in...
Bats are rich reservoirs of viruses, including several high consequence zoonoses. In this study, high throughput sequencing was used to characterize the virome through a longitudinal study of a captive colony of lesser dawn bats, species Eonycteris s...
RNA viruses are characterised by extremely high genetic variability due to fast replication, large population size, low fidelity, and (usually) a lack of proofreading mechanisms of RNA polymerases leading to high mutation rates. Furthermore, viral re...
Emerging RNA viruses pose a critical threat to aquatic animals, leading to significant ecological and economic consequences. Their high mutation rates and genetic adaptability drive rapid evolution, cross-species transmission, and expanding host rang...
The recent COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of RNA-based viruses. The most prominent members of this group are SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus), HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), EBOV (Ebola virus), DENV (dengue virus), HCV (hepatitis C virus...
Circulating avian influenza viruses pose a significant threat, with human infections occurring infrequently but with potentially severe consequences. To examine the dynamics and locale of the adaptation process of avian influenza viruses when introdu...
Experimental evolution studies, in which biological populations are evolved in a specific environment over time, can address questions about the nature of spontaneous mutations, responses to selection, and the origins and maintenance of novel traits....
Respiratory viral infections pose a significant public health threat, particularly in children and older adults, with high mortality rates. Some of these pathogens are the human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV), severe acute respiratory coronavirus...
Viruses replicate inside the cells of an organism and continuously evolve to contend with an ever-changing environment. Many life-threatening diseases, such as AIDS, SARS, hepatitis and some cancers, are caused by viruses. Because viruses have small...
Coinfection with both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses seems to be a real and severe problem. However, coinfection is far from a simple matter, and cannot be considered having more unfavorable outcomes as a direct consequence. In reality, the afterma...
11 August 2020
Lately, myriad of novel viruses have emerged causing epidemics such as SARS, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2, leading to high mortality rates worldwide. Thus, these viruses represented a challenging threat to mankind, especially considering the miniscule data a...
Numerous viruses hijack cellular protein trafficking pathways to mediate cell entry or to rearrange membrane structures thereby promoting viral replication and antagonizing the immune response. Adaptor protein complexes (AP), which mediate protein so...
The extension of virology beyond its traditional medical, veterinary, or agricultural applications, now called environmental virology, has shown that viruses are both the most numerous and diverse biological entities on Earth. In particular, virus is...
Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in cattle significantly impacts the economy due to relatively high morbidity and mortality and decreased production. Its multifactorial nature drives its global persistence, involving enteric viruses, bacteria, protozoa, a...
Many of the human viruses with oncogenic capabilities, either in their natural host or in experimental systems (hepatitis B and C, human T cell leukaemia virus type 1, Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus, human immunodeficiency virus, high-risk human papillom...
The extensive use of ophthalmic antibiotics is contributing to the appearance of resistant bacterial strains, which require prolonged and massive treatments with consequent detrimental outcomes and adverse effects. In addition to these issues, antibi...
Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and 2 (HSV-2) can infect the central nervous system (CNS) with dire consequences; in children and adults, HSV-1 may cause focal encephalitis, while HSV-2 causes meningitis. In neonates, both viruses can cause severe, di...
Avian influenza viruses from the A/H5 A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 (GsGd) lineage pose a continuing threat to animal and human health. Since their emergence in 1997, these viruses have spread across multiple continents and have become enzootic in poultry...
Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV), and tomato chlorosis virus (ToCV) are emerging viruses that cause significant damage to tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). TYLCV and ToLCNDV are single-stranded DNA viruse...
The worldwide, extraordinary outbreak of coronavirus pandemic (i.e., COVID-19) and other emerging viral expansions have drawn particular interest to the design and development of novel antiviral, and viricidal, agents, with a broad-spectrum of antivi...
Infection with Ebola virus (EBOV) is responsible for hemorrhagic fever in humans with a high mortality rate. Combined efforts of prevention and therapeutic intervention are required to tackle highly variable RNA viruses, whose infections often lead t...
Instrumental insemination of Apis mellifera L. queens is a widely employed technique used in honeybee breeding that enables the effective control of mating. However, drone semen represents a potential source of honeybee viruses. In this study, 43 sem...
In poultry, several respiratory viral infections lead to a drop in egg production associated with high economic losses. While the virus–host interactions at the respiratory epithelium are well studied, less is known about these interactions in...
Emerging influenza A viruses (IAV) bear the potential to cause pandemics with unpredictable consequences for global human health. In particular, the WHO has declared avian H5 and H7 subtypes as high-risk candidates, and continuous surveillance of the...
Biting midges of the genus Culicoides occur almost globally and can regionally and seasonally reach high abundances. Most species are hematophagous, feeding on all groups of vertebrates, including humans. In addition to being nuisance pests, they are...
Viruses that infect fungi are known as mycoviruses and are characterized by the lack of an extracellular phase. In recent years, the advances on nucleic acids sequencing technologies have led to a considerable increase in the number of fungi-infectin...
Trichomonas vaginalis is the most common non-viral cause of sexually transmitted infections globally. Infection by this protozoan parasite results in the clinical syndrome trichomoniasis, which manifests as an inflammatory disease with acute and chro...
Bats are widespread mammals of the order Chiroptera. They are key for ecosystem functioning, participating in crucial processes. Their unique ability amongst mammals to fly long distances, their frequently large population sizes, and their longevity...
Infections with Flaviviridae viruses, such as hepatitis C (HCV), dengue (DENV), and yellow fever (YFV) viruses, are major public health problems worldwide. In the case of HCV, treatment is associated with drug resistance and high costs, while there i...
Honey bee viruses are capable of causing a wide variety of devastating effects, but effective treatments have yet to be discovered. Phytochemicals represent a broad range of substances that honey bees frequently encounter and consume, many of which h...
The Coronaviridae family has again demonstrated the potential for significant neurological complications in humans during the recent pandemic. In patients, these symptoms persist throughout the infection, often lasting for months. The consequences of...
Tomato cultivation is threatened by environmental stresses (e.g., heat, drought) and by viral infection (mainly viruses belonging to the tomato yellow leaf curl virus family—TYLCVs). Unlike many RNA viruses, TYLCV infection does not induce a hy...
Myxoma virus (MYXV) is the type species of the Leporipoxviruses, a genus of Chordopoxvirinae, double stranded DNA viruses, whose members infect leporids and squirrels, inducing cutaneous fibromas from which virus is mechanically transmitted by biting...
Only a mere fraction of the huge variety of human pathogenic viruses can be targeted by the currently available spectrum of antiviral drugs. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak has highlighted the urgent need for...
The Reverse Transcriptase of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is distinguished by its high rate of homologous recombination. A less-studied consequence of this phenomenon is the increased occurrence of non-homologous recombination, which result...
Ecological changes, population movements and increasing urbanization promote the expansion of hantaviruses, placing humans at high risk of virus transmission and consequent diseases. The currently limited therapeutic options make the development of a...
Viruses are the most common causative agents of inflammation in the oral cavity and throat region. Most respiratory tract infections are self-limiting and require no specific treatment. However, patients often use different self-medication therapies...
Increased light intensity has been predicted as a major consequence of climate change. Light intensity is a critical resource involved in many plant processes, including the interaction with viruses. A central question to plant–virus interactio...
Japanese encephalitis virus is a mosquito-borne member of the Flaviviridae family. JEV is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia and is characterized by encephalitis, high lethality, and neurological sequelae in survivors. The virus also cau...
In a world where climate change, vector expansion, human activity, and pathogen dispersal do not respect boundaries, the human–animal–pathogen interface has become less defined. Consequently, a One Health approach to disease surveillance...
Microbial infections represent a problem of great importance at the public health level, with a high rate of morbidity-mortality worldwide. However, treating the different diseases generated by microorganisms requires a gradual increase in acquired r...
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