Virology Commons^™

Characterization Of A Plasmid-Based Dna Vaccine For Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, Priya Sanipara

Honors Theses

Described as one of the world’s worst pandemics, HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) infects millions of people each year and is the cause for AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Despite the development of vaccines for numerous infectious diseases such as polio, small pox, and influenza, a vaccine for HIV remains elusive due to the virus’s high mutation rate and ability to evade the immune system. HIV causes depletion of CD4+ lymphocytes, resulting in a weakened immune system. However, the development of a plasmid-based DNA vaccine approach may help revolutionize vaccine development for HIV due to its ability to confer cellular ...

Investigation Of Rapid Diagnostic Tests For Characterization Of Mycobacterium Avium Complex (Mac) From Various Isolates And Identification Of Virulence Factors Of Porcine Reproductive And Respiratory Syndrome Virus (Prrsv) In Vitro, Claudia Antonika

UCARE Research Products

Chapter 1

Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) has become one of the major problems in public health and livestock. Members of MAC, such as M. avium subsp paratuberculosis (MAP) and M. avium subsp hominissuis (MAH), are responsible for many opportunistic infections and the loss of livestock. MAP is economically significant to the beef and dairy industries because it is the etiologic agent of Johnes’s disease, a chronic and fatal enteritis in ruminants. Tracing the infection sources of MAC could be difficult since it infects many types of hosts in the natural environment. Furthermore, there is less information known about MAP ...

Zika Virus Induces Apoptosis In Retinal Pigmented Epithelial Cells, Madison Kraus, Philma Glora Muthuraj, Sathish Kumar Natarajan

UCARE Research Products

Zika virus is a single-stranded positive sense RNA virus that attracted international attention in 2015 when an epidemic broke out in Brazil. This vector borne virus is transmitted by mosquitos and is especially concerning for pregnant women because the virus can affect the development of the fetus. One known complication is the destruction of infected retinal epithelial cells. The transduction of light is interrupted due to cell death and results in blind spots. Previous research has demonstrated that palmitoleate can reduce the observed levels of apoptosis in ZIKAV infected JEG-3 cells. We have also seen the protection of retinal pigmented ...

Sars-Cov-2 Receptor Ace2 Is An Interferon-Stimulated Gene In Human Airway Epithelial Cells And Is Detected In Specific Cell Subsets Across Tissues, Carly G. K. Ziegler, Yuming Cao, Zhiru Guo, Jennifer P. Wang, Robert W. Finberg, Manuel Garber, Alex K. Shalek, Jose Ordovas-Montanes, Hca Lung Biological Network

Coronavirus COVID-19 Publications by UMMS Authors

There is pressing urgency to understand the pathogenesis of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus clade 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the disease COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein binds angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), and in concert with host proteases, principally transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2), promotes cellular entry. The cell subsets targeted by SARS-CoV-2 in host tissues and the factors that regulate ACE2 expression remain unknown. Here, we leverage human, non-human primate, and mouse single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets across health and disease to uncover putative targets of SARS-CoV-2 among tissue-resident cell subsets. We identify ACE2 and TMPRSS2 co-expressing cells within lung ...

The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Review Of Taxonomy, Genetics, Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, And Control, Yosra A. Helmy, Mohamed Fawzy, Ahmed Elaswad, Ahmed Sobieh, Scott P. Kenney, Awad A. Shehata

Coronavirus COVID-19 Publications by UMMS Authors

A pneumonia outbreak with unknown etiology was reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in December 2019, associated with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. The causative agent of the outbreak was identified by the WHO as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), producing the disease named coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). The virus is closely related (96.3%) to bat coronavirus RaTG13, based on phylogenetic analysis. Human-to-human transmission has been confirmed even from asymptomatic carriers. The virus has spread to at least 200 countries, and more than 1,700,000 confirmed cases and 111,600 deaths have been recorded, with massive global ...

Broad Host Range Of Sars-Cov-2 Predicted By Comparative And Structural Analysis Of Ace2 In Vertebrates, Joana Damas, Elinor K. Karlsson, Harris A. Lewin

University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is the cause of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19). The main receptor of SARS-CoV-2, angiotensin I converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), is now undergoing extensive scrutiny to understand the routes of transmission and sensitivity in different species. Here, we utilized a unique dataset of 410 vertebrates, including 252 mammals, to study cross-species conservation of ACE2 and its likelihood to function as a SARS-CoV-2 receptor. We designed a five-category ranking score based on the conservation properties of 25 amino acids important for the binding between receptor and virus, classifying all species from very high to very low. Only mammals fell ...

Single-Cell Analysis Of Upper Airway Cells Reveals Host-Viral Dynamics In Influenza Infected Adults, Yuming Cao, Zhiru Guo, Pranitha Vangala, Elisa Donnard, Ping Liu, Patrick Mcdonel, Jose Ordovas Montanes, Alex K. Shalek, Robert W. Finberg, Jennifer P. Wang, Manuel Garber

University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications

Influenza virus infections are major causes of morbidity and mortality. Research using cultured cells, bulk tissue, and animal models cannot fully capture human disease dynamics. Many aspects of virus-host interactions in a natural setting remain unclear, including the specific cell types that are infected and how they and neighboring bystander cells contribute to the overall antiviral response. To address these questions, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) on cells from freshly collected nasal washes from healthy human donors and donors diagnosed with acute influenza during the 2017-18 season. We describe a previously uncharacterized goblet cell population, specific to infected individuals ...

Comment: Probably A Good News: Covid-19 Is Not Spreading Fast In Tropical Region Like In Temperate Region, Madeeha Manzoor

Journal of Bioresource Management

My understanding of Covid-19 is that, there are some climatic factors involved in seed spread of this virus. As it started from the area of China which falls under temperate zone, its second victim was Iran’s city Qom which also falls under temperate zone and third is Italy which is completely in temperate zone.

Data from two countries from Temperate zone and three countries from Tropical zone was compared. The days counted from the 100 cases each country reached as day one and further days studied on equal basis.

Mechanisms Of Silencing Suppression By A Polerovirus P0 Protein, Natalie Holste, Hernan Garcia-Ruiz

Posters & Presentations in Biological Sciences

Maize lethal necrosis is an intense viral disease spreading across sub-Saharan Africa. Maize is the staple crop grown in sub-Saharan Africa, but most crops infected with maize lethal necrosis will not survive to harvest. This causes immense economic hardship and starvation within the population. Maize lethal necrosis consists of a combination of two viruses, Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and a virus from the genus potyvirus. In a recent study, a Maize yellow dwarf virus-RMV (MYDV-RMV)-like polerovirus, was repeatedly detected in plants with maize lethal necrosis. Poleroviruses have a silencing suppressor, P0 protein, and the mechanism of suppression is ...

Trim34 Restricts Hiv-1 And Siv Capsids In A Trim5alpha-Dependent Manner, Molly Ohainle, Kyusik Kim, Sevnur Komurlu Keceli, Abby Felton, Ed Campbell, Jeremy Luban, Michael Emerman

Open Access Articles

The HIV-1 capsid protein makes up the core of the virion and plays a critical role in early steps of HIV replication. Due to its exposure in the cytoplasm after entry, HIV capsid is a target for host cell factors that act directly to block infection such as TRIM5alpha and MxB. Several host proteins also play a role in facilitating infection, including in the protection of HIV-1 capsid from recognition by host cell restriction factors. Through an unbiased screening approach, called HIV-CRISPR, we show that the CPSF6-binding deficient, N74D HIV-1 capsid mutant is sensitive to restriction mediated by human TRIM34 ...

Utilization Of Emulsion Chemistries For Delivery And Antiviral Application Of Carvacrol, Hao-Yuan Hsu

Masters Theses

Human norovirus (HuNoVs) are the most common enteric pathogen around the world that cause ~50% of foodborne illness of disease outbreaks annually. HuNoVs are the member of the Caliciviridae family, which consist of small (38 nm), unenveloped, single stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses. Norovirus are divided into 5 genogroup (GI, GII, GIII, GIV, GV, GVI and GVII). The GI, GII, and GIV cause human illness, in addition, GII.4 genotype cause the most human disease. Due to HuNoVs are difficult cultured in vitro, the cultivable HuNoVs surrogates have been widely studied. Recently, some studies have been conducted with HuNoVs surrogates, for ...

Sars-Cov-2, Jeremy Luban

Coronavirus COVID-19 Publications by UMMS Authors

This presentation about the biology of Coronaviruses was presented virtually to the RNA Biology Journal Club at the University of Massachusetts Medical School on April 7, 2020.

Functional Sites Within The Ihnv Nonvirion Protein That Regulate Host Cellular Responses, Jeff Ringiesn, Bartolomeo Gorgoglione, Douglas W. Leaman

Symposium of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

Fish Rhabdoviruses are responsible for causing fatal epizootics within commercial and wild populations of various fish species around the world. Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), also known as the Salmonid novirhabdovirus, is enzootic along the Pacific Coast of North America and is comprised of five genogroups, each of which is endemic to a specific geographical location. Once the virus enters the host through the fin epithelia, IHNV infection causes infectious hematopoietic necrosis in salmonid species. The disease is highly fatal and presents with signs such as abdominal distension, bulging of the eyes, anemia, and necrosis of vital organs such as ...

Development Of An Attenuated Zika Virus By Editing The 5’ Untranslated Region, E. Ashley Thompson

Master's Theses

Zika Virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted flavivirus that usually causes no symptoms to mild febrile in humans, and it has been regarded as an insignificant pathogen to public health. However, recent outbreaks of ZIKV infection have revealed that ZIKV can cause severe neurological effects in adults, such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), and in infants whose mothers acquired the virus during pregnancy, causing Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS). Currently, no approved vaccine is available and there is a critical need to develop an effective and safe vaccine. While most vaccine developmental strategies target the viral prM-E protein of ZIKV, we aimed to ...

Assembly And Identification Of Novel Viruses In The Aquatic Invertebrate Daphnia Magna, Freddy L. Gonzalez, Reilly O. Cooper, Clayton E. Cressler

UCARE Research Products

Microbiome studies have been critical to understanding host health and life history. Many studies primarily focus on understanding the impacts of bacteria on the host, while fewer examine the impacts of viruses on host fitness or the interaction between viruses and bacteria within a host. Here, we utilized shotgun sequencing to identify whether viruses were present in the model organism Daphnia magna. VIBRANT, a bioinformatic tool that utilizes hybrid machine learning and protein similarity to identify lytic genomes and other novel viruses, was used on sequencing data from four samples of adult and juvenile Daphnia. We found a complete, novel ...

Creation Of An Influenza B Epigraph Vaccine, Leigh Jahnke, Kristine Hoagstrom, Eric A. Weaver

UCARE Research Products

The CDC struggles to predict the upcoming influenza viruses resulting in an ineffective influenza vaccine. The 2019 – 2020 influenza vaccine provides an example of vaccine mismatch where the vaccine poorly matches the circulating influenza strains. We have created Influenza B Epigraph hemagglutinin (HA) immunogens that are computationally designed to select the greatest coverage of B and T cell epitopes in the natural population. Our preliminary data shows Epigraph immunogens induce superior cross-reactive antibody responses, overall T cell immunity, breadth of T cell epitopes, and protection against influenza virus. The primary goal of this study is to clone the influenza B ...

Elucidating The Regulon Of A Fur-Like Protein In Mycobacterium Avium Subsp. Paratuberculosis (Map), Fernanda Miyagaki Shoyama, Taveesak Janetanakit, John P. Bannantine, Raul G. Barletta, Srinand Sreevatsan

Virology Papers

Intracellular iron concentration is tightly regulated to maintain cell viability. Iron plays important roles in electron transport, nucleic acid synthesis, and oxidative stress. A Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP)-specific genomic island carries a putative metal transport operon that includes MAP3773c, which encodes a Fur-like protein. Although well characterized as a global regulator of iron homeostasis in multiple bacteria, the function of Fur (ferric uptake regulator) in MAP is unknown as this organism also carries IdeR (iron dependent regulator), a native iron regulatory protein specific to mycobacteria. Computational analysis using PRODORIC identified 23 different pathways involved in respiration, metabolism, and ...

Avoiding Drug Resistance By Substrate Envelope-Guided Design: Toward Potent And Robust Hcv Ns3/4a Protease Inhibitors, Ashley N. Matthew, Jacqueto Zephyr, Nageswara Rao Desaboini, Mina Henes, Wasih Kamran, Klajdi Kosovrasti, Adam Hedger, Gordon J. Lockbaum, Jennifer Timm, Akbar Ali, Nese Kurt Yilmaz, Celia A. Schiffer

University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects millions of people worldwide, causing chronic liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver transplant. In the last several years, the advent of direct-acting antivirals, including NS3/4A protease inhibitors (PIs), has remarkably improved treatment outcomes of HCV-infected patients. However, selection of resistance-associated substitutions and polymorphisms among genotypes can lead to drug resistance and in some cases treatment failure. A proactive strategy to combat resistance is to constrain PIs within evolutionarily conserved regions in the protease active site. Designing PIs using the substrate envelope is a rational strategy to decrease the susceptibility ...

On The Inadequacy Of Species Distribution Models For Modelling The Spread Of Sars-Cov-2: Response To Araújo And Naimi, Joseph D. Chipperfield, Blas M. Benito, Robert B. O'Hara, Richard J. Telford, Colin J. Carlson

Public Health Resources

The ongoing pandemic of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing significant damage to public health and economic livelihoods, and is putting significant strains on healthcare services globally. This unfolding emergency has prompted the preparation and dissemination of the article “Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus likely to be constrained by climate” by Araújo and Naimi (2020). The authors present the results of an ensemble forecast made from a suite of species distribution models (SDMs), where they attempt to predict the suitability of the climate for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 over the coming months. They argue that climate is ...

Comparisons Of Antibody Populations In Different Pre-Fusion F Vlp-Immunized Cotton Rat Dams And Their Offspring, Lori Mcginnes Cullen, Marina S. Boukhvalova, Jorge C. G. Blanco, Trudy G. Morrison

Open Access Articles

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection poses a significant risk for infants. Since the direct vaccination of infants is problematic, maternal vaccination may provide a safer, more effective approach to their protection. In the cotton rat (CR) model, we have compared the immunization of pregnant CR dams with virus-like particles assembled with the prototype mutation stabilized pre-fusion F protein, DS-Cav1, as well two alternative mutation stabilized pre-fusion proteins (UC-2 F, UC-3 F) and showed that the alternative pre-fusion F VLPs protected the offspring of immunized dams significantly better than DS-Cav1 F VLPs (Blanco, et al. J. Virol. 93: e00914). Here, we ...