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Full-Text Articles in Virology

Designing A Novel Hiv-1 Candidate Vaccine, Rahul Pawa Apr 2020

Designing A Novel Hiv-1 Candidate Vaccine, Rahul Pawa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Currently no vaccine has been developed that can prevent the spread of HIV-1. During sexual transmission, a single viral variant called the Transmitted/Founder (T/F) purportedly with unique physical properties, establishes infection in 70-80% of individuals. Unlike previous studies that have tried to identify T/F viruses based on their structure glycan composition and amino acid sequence, we have analyzed the RNA sequences of HIV-1 to help identify T/F variants. Using a combination of both in silico data analysis and in vitro assays, we have identified that T/F viruses have higher numbers of immunostimulatory motifs than HIV virions that fail to infect. …


Assembly And Identification Of Novel Viruses In The Aquatic Invertebrate Daphnia Magna, Freddy L. Gonzalez, Reilly O. Cooper, Clayton E. Cressler Apr 2020

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 …


Two (Or More) Viruses In One Bat: A Systematic Quantitative Literature Review Of Viral Coinfection In Bats, Eli J. Kaufman Apr 2020

Two (Or More) Viruses In One Bat: A Systematic Quantitative Literature Review Of Viral Coinfection In Bats, Eli J. Kaufman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Viral coinfection is an important topic in pathogen dynamics, and can increase viral shedding and change disease outcomes. As bats are carriers of important zoonoses, such as the SARS coronaviruses, rabies, and other deadly viruses, knowing more about their coinfection dynamics is important. This quantitative systematic literature review sought to show how many papers reported bat viral coinfections, and created three databases. The first database, the SQLR database was based on searches for coinfections. The second database, the Astrovirus database was to determine how much of the literature was being missed by examining a single viral family more in depth …


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 Mar 2020

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 …


Biological And Computational Studies Of The Structure And Function Of Pul103, A Human Cytomegalovirus Tegument Protein, Ashley N. Anderson Jan 2020

Biological And Computational Studies Of The Structure And Function Of Pul103, A Human Cytomegalovirus Tegument Protein, Ashley N. Anderson

Wayne State University Dissertations

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is an enveloped, single segment, double-stranded DNA virus. HCMV infection causes disease in immunocompromised (HIV patients, transplant recipients) and immunodeficient (fetuses, neonates) populations. Current treatments are effective but are either limited in use or can lead to organ damage and/or antiviral resistance, and no vaccines are available. Additional antiviral targets are needed. HCMV pUL103 is a potential antiviral target. pUL103 is a conserved herpesvirus protein present in the tegument, layer of proteins and RNA between the envelope and capsid of HCMV virions. pUL103 helps reorganize cellular secretory machinery (Golgi, endosomes) to form the cytoplasmic virion assembly compartment …