Initiation of (-) strand DNA synthesis from tRNA(3Lys) on lentiviral RNAs: implications of specific HIV-1 RNA-tRNA(3Lys) interactions inhibiting primer utilization by retroviral reverse transcriptases.

Initiation of minus (-) strand DNA synthesis was examined on templates containing R, U5, and primer-binding site regions of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) genomic RNA. DNA synthesis was initiated from (i) an oligoribonucleotide complementary to the primer-binding sites, (ii) synthetic tRNA(3Lys), and (iii) natural tRNA(3Lys), by the reverse transcriptases of HIV-1, FIV, EIAV, simian immunodeficiency virus, HIV type 2 (HIV-2), Moloney murine leukemia virus, and avian myeloblastosis virus. All enzymes used an oligonucleotide on wild-type HIV-1 RNA, whereas only a limited number initiated (-) strand DNA synthesis from either tRNA(3Lys). In contrast, all enzymes supported efficient tRNA(3Lys)-primed (-) strand DNA synthesis on the genomes of FIV and EIAV. This may be in part attributable to the observation that the U5-inverted repeat stem-loop of the EIAV and FIV genomes lacks an A-rich loop shown with HIV-1 to interact with the U-rich tRNA anticodon loop. Deletion of this loop in HIV-1 RNA, or disrupting a critical loop-loop complex by tRNA(3Lys) extended by 9 nt, restored synthesis of HIV-1 (-) strand DNA from primer tRNA(3Lys) by all enzymes. Thus, divergent evolution of lentiviruses may have resulted in different mechanisms to use the same host tRNA for initiation of reverse transcription.

Tetracycline-Inducible packaging cell line for production of Flavivirus replicon particles.

We have previously developed replicon vectors derived from the Australian flavivirus Kunjin that have a unique noncytopathic nature and have been shown to direct prolonged high-level expression of encoded heterologous genes in vitro and in vivo and to induce strong and long-lasting immune responses to encoded immunogens in mice. To facilitate further applications of these vectors in the form of virus-like particles (VLPs), we have now generated a stable BHK packaging cell line, tetKUNCprME, carrying a Kunjin structural gene cassette under the control of a tetracycline-inducible promoter. Withdrawal of tetracycline from the medium resulted in production of Kunjin structural proteins that were capable of packaging transfected and self-amplified Kunjin replicon RNA into the secreted VLPs at titers of up to 1.6 x 10(9) VLPs per ml. Furthermore, secreted KUN replicon VLPs from tetKUNCprME cells could be harvested continuously for as long as 10 days after RNA transfection, producing a total yield of more than 1010 VLPs per 106 transfected cells. Passaging of VLPs on Vero cells or intracerebral injection into 2- to 4-day-old suckling mice illustrated the complete absence of any infectious Kunjin virus. tetKUNCprME cells were also capable of packaging replicon RNA from closely and distantly related flaviviruses, West Nile virus and dengue virus type 2, respectively. The utility of high-titer KUN replicon VLPs was demonstrated by showing increasing CD8(+)-T-cell responses to encoded foreign protein with increasing doses of KUN VLPs. A single dose of 2.5 x 10(7) VLPs carrying the human respiratory syncytial virus M2 gene induced 1,400 CD8 T cells per 10(6) splenocytes in an ex vivo gamma interferon enzyme-linked immunospot assay. The packaging cell line thus represents a significant advance in the development of the noncytopathic Kunjin virus replicon-based gene expression system and may be widely applicable to the basic studies of flavivirus RNA packaging and virus assembly as well as to the development of gene expression systems based on replicons from different flaviviruses.

Estudo do genoma do vírus causador da mionecrose infecciosa em camarões e desenvolvimento de métodos para detecção de polimorfismos

Shrimp farming is one of the activities that contribute most to the growth of global aquaculture. However, this business has undergone significant economic losses due to the onset of viral diseases such as Infectious Myonecrosis (IMN). The IMN is already widespread throughout Northeastern Brazil and affects other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and China. The main symptom of disease is myonecrosis, which consists of necrosis of striated muscles of the abdomen and cephalothorax of shrimp. The IMN is caused by infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV), a non-enveloped virus which has protrusions along its capsid. The viral genome consists of a single molecule of double-stranded RNA and has two Open Reading Frames (ORFs). The ORF1 encodes the major capsid protein (MCP) and a potential RNA binding protein (RBP). ORF2 encodes a probable RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and classifies IMNV in Totiviridae family. Thus, the objective of this research was study the IMNV complete genome and encoded proteins in order to develop a system differentiate virus isolates based on polymorphisms presence. The phylogenetic relationship among some totivirus was investigated and showed a new group to IMNV within Totiviridae family. Two new genomes were sequenced, analyzed and compared to two other genomes already deposited in GenBank. The new genomes were more similar to each other than those already described. Conserved and variable regions of the genome were identified through similarity graphs and alignments using the four IMNV sequences. This analyze allowed mapping of polymorphic sites and revealed that the most variable region of the genome is in the first half of ORF1, which coincides with the regions that possibly encode the viral protrusion, while the most stable regions of the genome were found in conserved domains of proteins that interact with RNA. Moreover, secondary structures were predicted for all proteins using various softwares and protein structural models were calculated using threading and ab initio modeling approaches. From these analyses was possible to observe that the IMNV proteins have motifs and shapes similar to proteins of other totiviruses and new possible protein functions have been proposed. The genome and proteins study was essential for development of a PCR-based detection system able to discriminate the four IMNV isolates based on the presence of polymorphic sites

Infectious in vitro transcripts from a cloned cDNA of barley yellow dwarf virus

A full-length cDNA clone of barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV-PAV serotype) has been constructed and fused to the bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase promoter. RNA transcripts produced in vitro, either capped or uncapped, were infectious in Triticum monococcum protoplasts. Protoplasts inoculated with in vitro-transcribed BYDV RNA accumulated coat protein, synthesized new viral RNAs, and produced virus particles. Aphid feeding on extracts from protoplasts inoculated with in vitro RNA transcripts can be used to transfer the virus progeny to whole plants. Introduction of mutations which interrupt specific BYDV-PAV open reading frames (ORFs) V and VI eliminated infectivity while an ORF I mutant remained infectious. Infectious RNA transcripts derived from BYDV cDNA clones will facilitate analysis of the molecular aspects of BYDV infection and further enhance our understanding of this economically important virus.

Novel vaccine acceptance in emerging infectious diseases: a case study of Hendra virus vaccine uptake in Australia

Background: The development of a horse vaccine against Hendra virus has been hailed as a good example of a One Health approach to the control of human disease. Although there is little doubt that this is true, it is clear from the underwhelming uptake of the vaccine by horse owners to date (approximately 10%) that realisation of a One Health approach requires more than just a scientific solution. As emerging infectious diseases may often be linked to the development and implementation of novel vaccines this presentation will discuss factors influencing their uptake; using Hendra virus in Australia as a case study. Methods: This presentation will draw on data collected from the Horse owners and Hendra virus: A Longitudinal cohort study To Evaluate Risk (HHALTER) study. The HHALTER study is a mixed methods research study comprising a two-year survey-based longitudinal cohort study and qualitative interview study with horse owners in Australia. The HHALTER study has investigated and tracked changes in a broad range of issues around early uptake of vaccination, horse owner uptake of other recommended disease risk mitigation strategies, and attitudes to government policy and disease response. Interviews provide further insights into attitudes towards risk and decision-making in relation to vaccine uptake. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis will be reported. Results: Data collected from more than 1100 horse owners shortly after vaccine introduction indicated that vaccine uptake and intention to vaccinate was associated with a number of risk perception factors and financial cost factors. In addition, concerns about side effects and veterinarians refusing to treat unvaccinated horses were linked to uptake. Across the study period vaccine uptake in the study cohort increased to more than 50%, however, concerns around side effects, equine performance and breeding impacts, delays to full vaccine approvals, and attempts to mandate vaccination by horse associations and event organisers have all impacted acceptance. Conclusion: Despite being provided with a safe and effective vaccine for Hendra virus that can protect horses and break the transmission cycle of the virus to humans, Australian horse owners have been reluctant to commit to it. General issues pertinent to novel vaccines, combined with challenges in the implementation of the vaccine have led to issues of mistrust and misconception with some horse owners. Moreover, factors such as cost, booster dose schedules, complexities around perceived risk, and ulterior motives attributed to veterinarians have only served to polarise attitudes to vaccine acceptance.

Sesbania Mosaic Virus (SeMV) Infectious Clone: Possible Mechanism of 3 ` and 5 ` End Repair and Role of Polyprotein Processing in Viral Replication

Sesbania mosaic virus (SeMV) is a positive stranded RNA virus belonging to the genus Sobemovirus. Construction of an infectious clone is an essential step for deciphering the virus gene functions in vivo. Using Agrobacterium based transient expression system we show that SeMV icDNA is infectious on Sesbania grandiflora and Cyamopsis tetragonoloba plants. The efficiency of icDNA infection was found to be significantly high on Cyamopsis plants when compared to that on Sesbania grandiflora. The coat protein could be detected within 6 days post infiltration in the infiltrated leaves. Different species of viral RNA (double stranded and single stranded genomic and subgenomic RNA) could be detected upon northern analysis, suggesting that complete replication had taken place. Based on the analysis of the sequences at the genomic termini of progeny RNA from SeMV icDNA infiltrated leaves and those of its 3' and 5' terminal deletion mutants, we propose a possible mechanism for 3' and 5' end repair in vivo. Mutation of the cleavage sites in the polyproteins encoded by ORF 2 resulted in complete loss of infection by the icDNA, suggesting the importance of correct polyprotein processing at all the four cleavage sites for viral replication. Complementation analysis suggested that ORF 2 gene products can act in trans. However, the trans acting ability of ORF 2 gene products was abolished upon deletion of the N-terminal hydrophobic domain of polyprotein 2a and 2ab, suggesting that these products necessarily function at the replication site, where they are anchored to membranes.

Wild-type measles virus infection of primary epithelial cells occurs via the basolateral surface without syncytium formation or release of infectious virus

The lymphotropic and myelotropic nature of wild-type measles virus (wt-MV) is well recognized, with dendritic cells and lymphocytes expressing the MV receptor CD150 mediating systemic spread of the virus. Infection of respiratory epithelial cells has long been considered crucial for entry of MV into the body. However, the lack of detectable CD150 on these cells raises the issue of their importance in the pathogenesis of measles. This study utilized a combination of in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo model systems to characterize the susceptibility of epithelial cells to wt-MV of proven pathogenicity. Low numbers of MV-infected epithelial cells in close proximity to underlying infected lymphocytes or myeloid cells suggested infection via the basolateral side of the epithelium in the macaque model. In primary cultures of human bronchial epithelial cells, foci of MV-infected cells were only observed following infection via the basolateral cell surface. The extent of infection in primary cells was enhanced both in vitro and in ex vivo cornea rim tissue by disrupting the integrity of the cells prior to the application of virus. This demonstrated that, whilst epithelial cells may not be the primary target cells for wt-MV, areas of epithelium in which tight junctions are disrupted can become infected using high m.o.i. The low numbers of MV-infected epithelial cells observed in vivo in conjunction with the absence of infectious virus release from infected primary cell cultures suggest that epithelial cells have a peripheral role in MV transmission.

A double antibody sandwich ELISA for rapid diagnosis of virus infection and to measure the humoral response against infectious bursal disease on clinical material

A double antibody sandwich ELISA (DAS-ELISA) was developed and employed for simultaneous direct detection of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) from bursal samples and to measure the humoral response, using the same basic immunoreagents, the purified and non-purified antigen, capture antibody and chicken hyperimmune sera were prepared, and standardized for this purpose, the DAS-ELISA was applied to both 80 bursal suspensions and 224 corresponding serum samples from vaccinated and non-vaccinated commercial hocks, Bursae samples were collected at 2 weeks of age, and submitted to histological examination, virus isolation in specific pathogen-free chickens embryos, and the DAS-ELISA technique, Serum titres obtained in indirect ELISA and serum neutralization test were compared with those in DAS-ELISA, the agreement was 80% between DAS-ELISA, and the conventional techniques, with high sensitivity (87%) and specificity (90%).

Replication of classical infectious bursal disease virus in the chicken embryo related cell line

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an acute, highly contagious viral disease. The diagnosis of IBD depends on time-consuming and costly procedures, like virus isolation on chick embryos and histopathological examination, A double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA), immunoperoxidase and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were applied in this study to detect classical IBD virus (IBDV) after three blind passages of the Lukert strain on chicken embryo related (CER) cell monolayer after different periods of infection: 6, 12, 24 and 48 h, Cytophatic effects were most evident 12 h post-infection (p.i.) but were observed at 6 h p.i. The maximum discrimination between IBDV-infected and uninfected cell suspensions obtained by the use of DAS-ELISA for virus detection corresponded to 0.597+/-0.02 and 0.010+/-0.01 after 12h p.i., respectively. The RT-PCR was performed using the set of primers A3.1 and A3.2 to amplify the VP2 region of the IBDV genome, This molecular technique demonstrated that from 6 h p.i., it was possible to detect the viral RNA. The results show that the CER cell line can be used for classical IBDV propagation, confirmed by the DAS-ELISA, immunoperoxidase and RT-PCR assay.

Direct detection of infectious bursal disease virus from clinical samples by in situ reverse transcriptase-linked polymerase chain reaction

The presence of the very virulent (vv) Brazilian strain of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) was determined in the bursa of Fabricius, thymus and liver of 2-week-old broilers from a flock with a higher than expected mortality. For this purpose, a direct in situ reverse transcriptase (RT)-linked polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method was developed using specific primers for vvIBDV. Unlabelled forward and reverse biotinylated oligonucleotides were used for RT-PCR in a one-step method and the respective products were revealed by a direct enzymatic reaction. The results were compared with those obtained by standard RT-PCR using general primers for IBDV and virus isolation. The virus isolation, RT-PCR and in situ RT-PCR revealed positive results on the bursa of Fabricius in 86%, 80% and 100%, respectively. The in situ RT-PCR detected vvIBDV in all tested thymus and liver samples, whereas the standard RT-PCR detected virus in 80% and 90% of the samples, respectively. After three consecutive passages on chicken embryonated eggs, IBDV was isolated from 64% of the thymus samples and 30% of the liver samples. In the present study, no classical or antigenic variants of IBDV were detected. The developed in situ RT-PCR assay was able to detect the very virulent strain of IBDV with a higher sensitivity than the conventional RT-PCR and virus isolation.

Application of a serum/protein-free medium for the growth of mammalian cell lines and high level production of classical, variant and very virulent strain of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Nonstructural proteins NS2-3 and NS4A of classical swine fever virus: essential features for infectious particle formation

The nonstructural protein NS2-3 of pestiviruses undergoes tightly regulated processing. For bovine viral diarrhea virus it was shown that uncleaved NS2-3 is required for infectious particle formation while cleaved NS3 is essential for genome replication. To further investigate the functions of NS2-3 and NS4A in the pestivirus life cycle, we established T7 RNA polymerase-dependent trans-complementation for p7-NS2-3-4A of classical swine fever virus (CSFV). Expression of NS2-3 and NS4A in trans restored the production of infectious particles from genomes lacking NS2-3 expression. Co-expression of cleaved NS4A was essential. None of the enzymatic activities harbored by NS2-3 were required for infectious particle formation. Importantly, expression of uncleavable NS2-3 together with NS4A rescued infectious particles from a genome lacking NS2, demonstrating that cleaved NS2 per se has no additional essential function. These data indicate that NS2-3 and NS3, each in association with NS4A, have independent functions in the CSFV life cycle.

Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis Virus Antibody Responses to Vaccines Used in Combination

The objective of this experimentation was to determine if circulating antibody titers to parainfluenza type-3 (PI-3) and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) viruses could be enhanced by a combination of vaccines. The vaccines utilized were a modified live virus vaccine administered by the intranasal route and an inactivated virus vaccine injected intramuscularly. Virus neutralization tests were conducted on sera obtained at intervals before and following vaccination. Unfortunately, the calves were apparently exposed naturally to PI-3 virus, and the responses to that virus were inconclusive. However, antibody responses to IBR virus were dramatically enhanced by the combination of the two vaccines.

Clinical characteristics and outcomes in children hospitalised with pandemic influenza A/H1N1/09 virus infection – a nationwide survey by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Group of Switzerland

OBJECTIVE To describe all patients admitted to children's hospitals in Switzerland with a diagnosis of influenza A/H1N1/09 virus infection during the 2009 influenza pandemic, and to analyse their characteristics, predictors of complications, and outcome. METHODS All patients ≤18-years-old hospitalised in eleven children's hospitals in Switzerland between June 2009 and January 2010 with a positive influenza A/H1N1/09 reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from a nasopharyngeal specimen were included. RESULTS There were 326 PCR-confirmed patients of whom 189 (58%) were younger than 5 years of age, and 126 (38.7%) had one or more pre-existing medical condition. Fever (median 39.1 °C) was the most common sign (85.6% of all patients), while feeding problems (p = 0.003) and febrile seizures (p = 0.016) were significantly more frequent in children under 5 years. In 142 (43.6%) patients there was clinical suspicion of a concomitant bacterial infection, which was confirmed in 36 patients (11%). However, severe bacterial infection was observed in 4% of patients. One third (n = 108, 33.1%) of the patients were treated with oseltamivir, 64 (59.3%, or 20% overall) within 48 hours of onset of symptoms. Almost half of the patients (45.1%) received antibiotics for a median of 7 days. Twenty patients (6.1%) required intensive care, mostly for complicated pneumonia (50%) without an underlying medical condition. The median duration of hospitalisation was 2 days (range 0-39) for 304 patients. Two children (<15 months of age with underlying disease) died. CONCLUSIONS Although pandemic influenza A/H1N1/09 virus infection in children is mostly mild, it can be severe, regardless of past history or underlying disease.