Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Virology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Virology

Multistrain Hiv-1 Elimination: A Crispr-Cas9 And Theranostics-Based Approach, Jonathan Herskovitz Dec 2020

Multistrain Hiv-1 Elimination: A Crispr-Cas9 And Theranostics-Based Approach, Jonathan Herskovitz

Theses & Dissertations

A critical barrier to achieving a functional cure for infection by human immunodeficiency virus type one (HIV-1) rests in the presence of latent proviral DNA integrated in the nuclei of host CD4+ T cells and mononuclear phagocytes. Accordingly, HIV-1-infected patients must adhere to lifelong regimens of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to prevent viral rebound, CD4+ T cell decline, and progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Gene editing using clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-Cas9 technology stands as one means to inactivate integrated proviral DNA. We devised a mosaic gRNA CRISPR-Cas9 system- TatDE- that targets viral transcriptional regulator genes tat / …


Cognitive Recovery In The Post-Infectious Cns, Charise Joy Garber May 2020

Cognitive Recovery In The Post-Infectious Cns, Charise Joy Garber

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neuroinflammation plays a pivotal role in a variety of diseases of the CNS associated with cognitive impairment, including Alzheimerճ Disease, Parkinsonճ Disease with dementia, Multiple Sclerosis, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, and West Nile Virus Neuroinvasive disease (WNND). Despite strong evidence that infiltration of peripheral immune cells and activation of resident microglia and astrocytes occurs in these various diseases, very little is known about how this altered immune environment may influence normal cognitive function. Given that communication between the nervous and immune system is essential for normal cognitive function, the central motivation of my thesis work is to understand the mechanisms by …


Development Of An Attenuated Zika Virus By Editing The 5’ Untranslated Region, E. Ashley Thompson May 2020

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 …


Oncolytic Viruses: Cancer Treatment Going Viral, Rhianna N. Bronson May 2020

Oncolytic Viruses: Cancer Treatment Going Viral, Rhianna N. Bronson

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.


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. …