Viruses

Over the past few decades, honey bees have been facing an increasing number of stressors. Beyond individual stress factors, the synergies between them have been identified as a key factor in the observed increase in colony mortality. However, these interactions are numerous and complex and call for further research. Here, in line with our need for a systemic understanding of the threats that they pose to bee health, we review the interactions between honey bee viruses. As viruses are obligate parasites, the interactions between them not only depend on the viruses themselves but also on the immune responses of honey bees...

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) belongs to the gamma-coronavirus genus of Coronaviridae and causes serious infectious diseases in the poultry industry. However, only a few IBV strains can infect avian passage cell lines, seriously hindering the progress of basic research on IBV pathogenesis. Whereas IBV field strains can replicate in tracheal ring organ culture (TOC) without any previous adaptation in chicken embryos or primary cells. In this study, to investigate the potential use of TOC as an in vitro infection model for the study of IBV-host interaction, we first established a chicken embryo TOC culture system and carried out an investigation on the IBV replication kinetics in the system...

Anti-cytokine autoantibodies and, in particular, anti-type I interferons are increasingly described in association with immunodeficient, autoimmune, and immune-dysregulated conditions. Their presence in otherwise healthy individuals may result in a phenotype characterized by a predisposition to infections with several agents. For instance, anti-type I interferon autoantibodies are implicated in Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pathogenesis and found preferentially in patients with critical disease. However, autoantibodies were also described in the serum of patients with viral, bacterial, and fungal infections not associated with COVID-19...

Infectious diseases represent one of the major public health concerns on the global level [...].

The Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes (BSVoM) was founded on 9 June 2022 to capture and enhance the collaborative spirit among the expanding community of microbial virus researchers in Belgium. The sixteen founders are affiliated to fourteen different research entities across academia, industry and government. Its inaugural symposium was held on 23 September 2022 in the Thermotechnical Institute at KU Leuven. The meeting program covered three thematic sessions launched by international keynote speakers: (1) virus-host interactions, (2) viral ecology, evolution and diversity and (3) present and future applications...

We aim to investigate the impact of different clinical phases' definitions of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection on the profiles of grey zone, based on HBV guidelines set by the Chinese Society of Hepatology and Chinese Society of Infectious Diseases (CSH/CSID, 2022 version) and guidelines set by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD, 2018 version). We retrospectively examined untreated CHB patients enrolled in the China Registry of Hepatitis B database. Patients' clinical phases were determined as per CSH/CSID and AASLD...

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arbovirus whose infection in humans can lead to severe outcomes. This article reviews studies reporting the anti-ZIKV activity of natural products (NPs) and derivatives published from 1997 to 2022, which were carried out with NPs obtained from plants (82.4%) or semisynthetic/synthetic derivatives, fungi (3.1%), bacteria (7.6%), animals (1.2%) and marine organisms (1.9%) along with miscellaneous compounds (3.8%). Classes of NPs reported to present anti-ZIKV activity include polyphenols, triterpenes, alkaloids, and steroids, among others...

Healthy agroecosystems are dependent on a complex web of factors and inter-species interactions. Flowers are hubs for pathogen transmission, including the horizontal or vertical transmission of plant-viruses and the horizontal transmission of bee-viruses. Pollination by the European honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) is critical for industrial fruit production, but bees can also vector viruses and other pathogens between individuals. Here, we utilized commercial honey bee pollination services in blueberry ( Vaccinium corymbosum ) farms for a metagenomics-based bee and plant virus monitoring system...

Enterococcus faecalis is a potential animal and human pathogen. Improper use of antibiotics encourages resistance. Bacteriophages and their derivatives are promising for treating drug-resistant bacterial infections. In this study, phylogenetic and electron microscopy analyses of phage vB_EfaS_WH1 (WH1) isolated from chicken feces revealed it to be a novel phage in the family Siphoviridae . WH1 showed good pH stability (4-11), temperature tolerance (4-60 °C), and broad E. faecalis host range (60% of isolates)...

There is considerable interest in the use of bacteriophages (phages) to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections associated with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). These infections are often challenging to manage due to high rates of multidrug resistance and biofilm formation, which could potentially be overcome with the use of phages. We report a case of a 54-year-old man with relapsing multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa LVAD driveline infection, who was treated with a combination of two lytic antipseudomonal phages administered intravenously and locally...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children can be compounded by concurrent diseases and immunosuppressants. For the first time, we aimed to report the clinical features of concurrent COVID-19 and pediatric rheumatic disease (PRD) in Japan. Pediatric Rheumatology Association of Japan members were surveyed between 1 April 2020 and 31 August 2022. Outcome measurements included the clinical features of concurrent PRD and COVID-19. Questionnaire responses were obtained from 38 hospitals. Thirty-one hospitals (82%) had children with PRD and COVID-19...

The pathogenesis of porcine circovirus type 2b (PCV2b) and swine influenza A virus (SwIV) during co-infection in swine respiratory cells is poorly understood. To elucidate the impact of PCV2b/SwIV co-infection, newborn porcine tracheal epithelial cells (NPTr) and immortalized porcine alveolar macrophages (iPAM 3D4/21) were co-infected with PCV2b and SwIV (H1N1 or H3N2 genotype). Viral replication, cell viability and cytokine mRNA expression were determined and compared between single-infected and co-infected cells...

Cryptococcal meningitis is a serious infection of the central nervous system that is predominant in developing countries, caused by fungi of the genus Cryptococcus , and which affects immunosuppressed patients, especially those with HIV. Here, we aim to diagnose and characterize the clinical-epidemiological profile of cryptococcosis in patients admitted to two tertiary public hospitals in northeastern Brazil. The study is divided into three moments: (1) the isolation of fungus and diagnosis from biological samples collected between 2017 and 2019, (2) a description of the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the patients, and (3) the experimental tests related to an in vitro susceptibility antifungal profile...

Many studies have shown that β-glucan induces a trained immune phenotype in innate immune cells to defend against bacterial and fungal infections. The specific mechanism involves cellular metabolism and epigenetic reprogramming. However, it is unclear whether β-glucan plays a role in antiviral infection. Therefore, this study investigated the role of trained immunity induced by Candida albicans and β-glucan in antiviral innate immunity. It showed that C. albicans and β-glucan promoted the expression of interferon-β (IFN-β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in mouse macrophages triggered by viral infection...

Mycoviruses (viruses of fungi) are ubiquitous throughout the fungal kingdom and are currently classified into 23 viral families and the genus botybirnavirus by the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). The primary focus of mycoviral research has been on mycoviruses that infect plant pathogenic fungi, due to the ability of some to reduce the virulence of their host and thus act as potential biocontrol against these fungi. However, mycoviruses lack extracellular transmission mechanisms and rely on intercellular transmission through the hyphal anastomosis, which impedes successful transmission between different fungal strains...

Immunopathology in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is driven by innate and adaptive immunity. Whether the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) affects hepatic antiviral signalling was investigated in HBV-transgenic mouse models that either accumulate (Alb/HBs, Tg[Alb1HBV]Bri44), lack (Tg1.4HBV-s-mut3) or secrete (Tg1.4HBV-s-rec (F1, Tg1.4HBV-s-mut × Alb/HBs) the HBsAg. Herein, the responsiveness of TLR3 and RIG-I in primary parenchymal and non-parenchymal liver cells was determined in vitro and in vivo...

COVID-19, which broke out globally in 2019, is an infectious disease caused by a novel strain of coronavirus, and its spread is highly contagious and concealed. Environmental vectors play an important role in viral infection and transmission, which brings new difficulties and challenges to disease prevention and control. In this paper, a type of differential equation model is constructed according to the spreading functions and characteristics of exposed individuals and environmental vectors during the virus infection process...

INTRODUCTION: Remdesivir (REM) and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) could alleviate severe COVID-19 in at-risk outpatients. However, data on their use in hospitalized patients, particularly in elderly or immunocompromised hosts, are lacking. METHODS: All consecutive patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at our unit from 1 July 2021 to 15 March 2022 were retrospectively enrolled. The primary outcome was the progression to severe COVID-19 (P/F < 200). Descriptive statistics, a Cox univariate-multivariate model, and an inverse probability treatment-weighted (IPTW) analysis were performed...

Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) is a cytokine that plays an important role in immune regulation, especially in the activation and differentiation of immune cells. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a family of pattern-recognition receptors that sense structural motifs related to pathogens and alert immune cells to the invasion. Both IFN-γ and TLR agonists have been used as immunoadjuvants to augment the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies and vaccines against infectious diseases or psychoactive compounds...

IBV variants belonging to the GI-23 lineage have circulated since 1998 in the Middle East and have spread to several countries over time. In Brazil, the first report of GI-23 occurred in 2022. The study aimed to evaluate the in vivo pathogenicity of exotic variant GI-23 isolates. Biological samples were screening by real-time RT-PCR and classified in to GI-1 or G1-11 lineages. Interestingly, 47.77% were not classified in these lineages. Nine of the unclassified strains were sequenced and showed a high similarity to the GI-23 strain...