Article
Immunology
Shallu Tomer, Wenli Mu, Gajendra Suryawanshi, Hwee Ng, Li Wang, Wally Wennerberg, Valerie Rezek, Heather Martin, Irvin Chen, Scott Kitchen, Anjie Zhen
Summary: This study reveals the mechanism of action through which CBD modulates type I interferon responses in human macrophages. CBD attenuates the activation of type I interferon response genes and upregulates the expression of autophagy receptor p62/SQSTM1. It also demonstrates the potential dichotomous roles of CBD in HIV replication, reducing viral spread but increasing HIV RNA expression.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Haibo Ding, Xiaowei Zhang, Zheming Zhu, Shumei Wang, Ying Xiong, Hong Shang, Guoxin Liang
Summary: The study revealed that OTOF protein induced by type I interferon can inhibit HIV-1 entry in macrophages and dendritic cells but not in CD4(+) T lymphocytes. This finding suggests OTOF as a potential therapeutic agent for HIV infection.
Article
Immunology
Julie Lucas, Li-Yun Lin, Nicodeme Paul, Geraldine Laumond, Jeromine Klingler, Sylvie Schmidt, Julia Frappier, Asma Essat, Laurence Meyer, Alicia Castro Gordon, Cecile Goujard, Seiamak Bahram, Christiane Moog
Summary: The study found that neutralizing antibodies preferentially directed against early-transmitted founder (T/F) viruses can be induced following HIV infection. These early-induced neutralizing antibodies may have lesser maturation characteristics, making them more interesting for future vaccine designs.
Article
Virology
Aurelie Drouin, Julie Migraine, Marie-Alice Durand, Alain Moreau, Julien Burlaud-Gaillard, Maxime Beretta, Philippe Roingeard, Melanie Bouvin-Pley, Martine Braibant
Summary: The cellular factor IFITM3 reduces HIV-1 infectivity through an unclear mechanism. IFITM3 interacts with Env of sensitive viruses, inducing conformational changes that decrease viral infectivity, but this antiviral action is modulated by the nature of Env, particularly the V1V2 and V3 loops, which may escape this interaction after processing in the Golgi apparatus.
JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Immunology
Wen Dang, Tao Li, Fan Xu, Yannan Wang, Fan Yang, Haixue Zheng
Summary: This study focused on the broad transcriptional elevation of hundreds of IFN-stimulated genes in response to type I IFN stimulation in pig cells, aiming to identify key effectors mediating type I IFN inhibition of swine viruses using a CRISPR/Cas9 knockout library.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Virology
Bonisile Luthuli, Kamini Gounder, Martin J. Deymier, Krista L. Dong, Alejandro B. Balazs, Jaclyn K. Mann, Thumbi Ndungu
Summary: The genetic diversity of HIV hinders vaccine development, but studying the viral properties of transmitted/founder variants may offer a common vaccine target.
Review
Oncology
Sarah E. Fenton, Diana Saleiro, Leonidas C. Platanias
Summary: Interferons play crucial roles in activating immune responses, promoting anti-tumor effects while also potentially suppressing immune responses. Maintaining a balance is key for effective cancer surveillance and immune responses.
Review
Virology
Joe McKellar, Antoine Rebendenne, Melanie Wencker, Olivier Moncorge, Caroline Goujon
Summary: Host cells have developed a multi-modular system to detect and combat influenza viruses, including interferon response and intrinsic immunity. These mechanisms activate a wide array of antiviral effectors that inhibit virus replication at various stages, providing important insights for the development of new influenza treatments.
Article
Virology
Federico Marziali, Mathilde Delpeuch, Anuj Kumar, Romain Appourchaux, Jeremy Dufloo, Kevin Tartour, Lucie Etienne, Andrea Cimarelli
Summary: IFITMs are a family of interferon-inducible proteins that inhibit a broad range of viruses by interfering with viral-to-cellular membrane fusion. By comparing 21 IFITMs from different animal species for their ability to inhibit HIV-1, functional diversity was identified, not driven by known domains and only partly explained through protein stability. Chimeras between active and inactive IFITMs suggest that the cross talk between individual IFITM domains is important for optimal antiviral activity.
JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Supawadee Umthong, Brian Lynch, Uddhav Timilsina, Brandon Waxman, Emily B. Ivey, Spyridon Stavrou
Summary: This study explores the antiviral mechanism of MARCH proteins, which act as antiretroviral factors by reducing the incorporation of envelope glycoproteins in budding virions. A comprehensive analysis reveals that MARCH proteins have broad antiviral functions, restricting envelope glycoproteins from various viruses to different degrees. Comparisons between human and mouse MARCH genes show differences in the mechanism of restriction among MARCH proteins.
Review
Virology
Solene Lerolle, Natalia Freitas, Francois-Loic Cosset, Vincent Legros
Summary: The Bunyavirales order includes over 500 viruses, some highly pathogenic, infecting various hosts. Host cell sensing of infection activates the immune system to inhibit viral replication. Viruses have developed strategies to evade host antiviral responses.
Article
Virology
Patricio Doldan, Jin Dai, Camila Metz-Zumaran, John T. Patton, Megan L. Stanifer, Steeve Boulant
Summary: Rotavirus is a common cause of gastroenteritis worldwide, especially in developing countries where it can lead to over 200,000 deaths in infants and children. Research indicates that while rotavirus can block the induction of type I interferons, it is unable to block the production of type III interferons, which play a key role in limiting rotavirus infection.
JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Isabel Pagani, Pietro Demela, Silvia Ghezzi, Elisa Vicenzi, Massimo Pizzato, Guido Poli
Summary: In addition to CD4(+) T lymphocytes, myeloid cells and differentiated macrophages are targets of HIV-1 infection, and there are significant differences in virus replication between the two cell types. Understanding these differences is crucial for evaluating the role of cell-associated restriction factors in preventing virus replication in macrophages and T cells.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Oncology
Nalini Srinivas, Lina Song, Kuan Cheok Lei, Jan Gravemeyer, Frauke Furtmann, Thilo Gambichler, Juergen C. Becker, Ashwin Sriram
Summary: This study found that the HDAC inhibitor domatinostat can induce the expression of IFN alpha and apoptosis in MCC cells by inhibiting HES1 expression. This discovery reveals the mechanism of HDAC inhibitors in treating MCC.
JOURNAL OF CANCER RESEARCH AND CLINICAL ONCOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Immunology
Natalia Fernandez, Peter Hayes, Julia Makinde, Jonathan Hare, Deborah King, Rui Xu, Ola Rehawi, Allison T. Mezzell, Laban Kato, Susan Mugaba, Jennifer Serwanga, James Chemweno, Eunice Nduati, Matt A. Price, Faith Osier, Christina Ochsenbauer, Ling Yue, Eric Hunter, Jill Gilmour
Summary: This study describes a functional viral inhibition assay to evaluate the CD8 T-cell-mediated inhibition of HIV-1 replication. The assay was successfully established across multiple clinical research centers and showed reproducibility. This method provides a tool for designing HIV-1 vaccine candidates and evaluating vaccine-induced T-cell immune responses in clinical trials.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Luke B. Snell, Chloe L. Fisher, Usman Taj, Oliver Stirrup, Blair Merrick, Adela Alcolea-Medina, Themoula Charalampous, Adrian W. Signell, Harry D. Wilson, Gilberto Betancor, Mark Tan Kia Ik, Emma Cunningham, Penelope R. Cliff, Suzanne Pickering, Rui Pedro Galao, Rahul Batra, Stuart J. D. Neil, Michael H. Malim, Katie J. Doores, Sam T. Douthwaite, Gaia Nebbia, Jonathan D. Edgeworth, Ali R. Awan
Summary: Analysis of viral genome sequences and epidemiological data in a large healthcare institution during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed 44 transmission clusters, with genomics playing a crucial role in accurately resolving these clusters. Evidence suggests that unidentified cases, such as healthcare workers or asymptomatic patients, may be important vectors of transmission.
CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTION
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Spyros Lytras, Joseph Hughes, Darren Martin, Phillip Swanepoel, Arne de Klerk, Rentia Lourens, Sergei L. Kosakovsky Pond, Wei Xia, Xiaowei Jiang, David L. Robertson
Summary: The study suggests that horseshoe bats in southern China and Southeast Asia are likely the reservoir species for the proximal animal ancestor of SARS-CoV-2. The research also reveals recent geographic movement and cocirculation of these viruses' ancestors. However, a direct proximal ancestor to SARS-CoV-2 has not been sampled yet, highlighting the need for more wildlife sampling to determine the exact origins, intermediate species involved in transmission, and the diversity of related sarbecoviruses that pose a high risk for future spillovers.
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Haiting Chai, Quan Gu, Joseph Hughes, David L. Robertson
Summary: This study analyzed and predicted the directionality of the interactions between HIV-1 and human host proteins. Using support vector machine learning models, significant differences were found between VIPs and non-VIPs, and the direction of interactions between HIV-1 and 1351 human host proteins was inferred.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Robert J. Stott-Marshall, Toshana L. Foster
Summary: In this study, researchers identified ZMPSTE24 as a restriction factor against arenaviruses and found that it cooperates with IFITMs to inhibit viral infection. They also discovered that ZMPSTE24 and IFITMs restrict viral entry and replication by perturbing cellular endocytosis and highlight the importance of cellular membrane integrity for productive fusion of arenaviruses.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Letter
Environmental Sciences
Siew Woh Choo, Ju Lian Chong, Philippe Gaubert, Alice Catherine Hughes, Stephen O'Brien, Anne-Lise Chaber, Agostinho Antunes, Sara Platto, Nick Ching-Min Sun, Li Yu, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Tulshi Laxmi Suwal, Mukesh Thakur, Stephan Ntie, Elisa Panjang, Jayaraj Vijaya Kumaran, Tariq Mahmood, Sean P. Heighton, Dago Dorji, Bi Sery Gonedele, Bryan Raveen Nelson, Chabi A. M. S. Djagoun, Ing Hoe Loh, Prativa Kaspal, Siim Pauklin, Toby Michelena, Hongxiang Zhu, Leonard Lipovich, Xuechen Tian, Siwei Deng, Christopher E. Mason, Jingyang Hu, Robert White, Nicholas S. Jakubovics, Wei Yee Wee, Tze King Tan, Kum Thong Wong, Steve Paterson, Ming Chen, Yixin Zhang, Rofina Yasmin Othman, Larry C. Brown, Bairong Shen, Guanghou Shui, Mia Yang Ang, Yunqi Zhao, Yongming Li, Bo Zhang, Cheng Tung Chong, Yu Meng, Aloysius Wong, Jianzhong Su, Hasmahzaiti Omar, Hua Shen, Choo Hock Tan, Hongyu Xu, Ian C. Paterson, Minyan Wang, Chee-Kai Chan, Siyuan Zhang, Avirup Dutta, Tay Sun Tee, Noel P. D. Juvigny-Khenafou, Naresh V. R. Mutha, Muhamad Afiq Aziz
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Cell Biology
Sonja Fernbach, Eva E. Spieler, Idoia Busnadiego, Umut Karakus, Anouk Lkharrazi, Silke Stertz, Benjamin G. Hale
Summary: Using RNAi screening, researchers identified RABGAP1L as a key factor in IFN-mediated immune defense, which restricts viral infection by disrupting the cell entry process.
Review
Microbiology
MacGregor Cox, Thomas P. Peacock, William T. Harvey, Joseph Hughes, Derek W. Wright, Brian J. Willett, Emma Thomson, Ravindra K. Gupta, Sharon J. Peacock, David L. Robertson, Alessandro M. Carabelli
Summary: Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are an important treatment option for severe COVID-19, but the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to evasion of mAb-induced protection. Spike protein amino acid substitutions, both at epitope and non-epitope positions, play a role in resistance to mAb neutralization. Understanding the dynamics of viral evasion can inform surveillance and the development of novel mAb therapies.
NATURE REVIEWS MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Muhamad Hifzhudin Noor Aziz, Ahmad Dzulhilmi Ahmad Safaruddin, Nor Aishah Hamzah, Siti Suzlin Supadi, Zhou Yuhao, Muhamad Afiq Aziz
Summary: A modified SEIR model incorporating vaccination and inter-state movement was developed to simulate COVID-19 spread in Malaysia. Mathematical analysis yielded the basic reproduction number, while model parameters were estimated using the Nelder-Mead simplex method and fitted to observed data. The model exhibited good fit and enabled short-term predictions, indicating a decline in COVID-19 cases by the end of August in response to the rapid vaccination program. Furthermore, relaxing travel restrictions from highly vaccinated to low vaccinated regions could lead to epidemic outbreaks.
ACTA BIOTHEORETICA
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Muhamad Afiq Aziz, Syuhada Norman, Suzaini Mohamed Zaid, Khanom Simarani, Raha Sulaiman, Alijah Mohd Aris, Khor Bee Chin, Rozainanee Mohd Zain
Summary: This study successfully demonstrates the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genes in urban wastewater in Malaysia and establishes a relationship between SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater and COVID-19 cases in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. The findings emphasize the importance of wastewater monitoring for obtaining additional information on the silent spread of infectious agents in communities at the regional level.
ARCHIVES OF MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Elena Sugrue, Arthur Wickenhagen, Nardus Mollentze, Muhamad Afiq Aziz, Vattipally B. Sreenu, Sven Truxa, Lily Tong, Ana da Silva Filipe, David L. Robertson, Joseph Hughes, Suzannah J. Rihn, Sam J. Wilson
Summary: HIV-1 transmission through sexual exposure is inefficient, and newly infected individuals are colonized by a small number of transmitting viruses. These transmitting viruses are more resistant to interferon than chronic control viruses. The apparent interferon resistance of transmitting HIV-1 may be explained by enhanced replicative fitness rather than specific resistance to interferon-induced defenses. Further research is needed to determine the generalizability of this mechanism.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ekaterina Martynova, Robert J. Stott-Marshall, Venera Shakirova, Albina Saubanova, Asiya Bulatova, Yuriy N. Davidyuk, Emmanuel Kabwe, Maria Markelova, Ilseyar Khaertynova, Toshana L. Foster, Svetlana Khaiboullina
Summary: By analyzing clinical and laboratory data, it was found that pediatric patients with Nephropathia epidemica (NE) had milder symptoms compared to adult patients. The activation of serum cytokines and kidney injury markers differed between adults and children with NE. These findings suggest age differences in NE severity, which should be considered in diagnosis.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Alexandra Hardy, Siddharth Bakshi, Wilhelm Furnon, Oscar MacLean, Quan Gu, Margus Varjak, Mariana Varela, Muhamad Afiq Aziz, Andrew E. E. Shaw, Rute Maria Pinto, Natalia Cameron Ruiz, Catrina Mullan, Aislynn E. E. Taggart, Ana Da Silva Filipe, Richard E. E. Randall, Sam J. J. Wilson, Meredith E. E. Stewart, Massimo Palmarini
Summary: Infected hosts have two strategies to protect themselves: resistance and disease tolerance. In this study, the mechanisms of virus-host interactions related to disease tolerance were investigated using bluetongue virus (BTV) as a model. The replication of BTV was higher in sheep cells than in cattle cells, and this difference was abolished by suppressing the cell's type I interferon response. Furthermore, BTV induced a faster shutdown of host cell protein synthesis in sheep cells, leading to downregulation of antiviral proteins.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Halina Mikolajek, Juan Sanchez-Weatherby, James Sandy, Richard J. Gildea, Ivan Campeotto, Harish Cheruvara, John D. Clarke, Toshana Foster, Sotaro Fujii, Ian T. Paulsen, Bhumika S. Shah, Michael A. Hough
Summary: The utility of X-ray crystal structures at ambient-temperature conditions is increasingly recognized due to their ability to characterize protein dynamics and address challenging protein targets. The fully automated ambient-temperature beamline VMXi at Diamond Light Source provides an efficient pipeline for protein sample to final structure determination, as demonstrated through various user case studies. It is also shown that rapid in situ structure determination from crystals within crystallization plates is now routine with minimal user intervention.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kuilan Yogeswaran, Liyana Azmi, Subha Bhassu, Hafizah N. Isa, Muhamad Afiq Aziz
Summary: The quality of air conditioning and ventilation systems in laboratories is crucial for the health of users and accuracy of experiments. Recent studies have shown that subpar systems in labs can pose health risks. This study investigated the relationship between physical parameters and microbial pollutants in lab air quality, specifically quantifying and characterizing bacteria and fungi. Results revealed that high temperatures and humidity exceeded safety thresholds, and poor system maintenance led to high bacterial and fungal counts. Staphylococcus spp. and Cladosporium spp. were the most common isolates. Regular monitoring and maintenance are necessary to ensure a safe indoor environment in research labs.
KUWAIT JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
(2023)