infectious disease | the Non-Coding RNA Group

HCMV

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

HCMV is present in humans with seroprevalence ranging from 45 to 96% globally (about 96% in China). HCMV infection occurs throughout the body, is always mild and asymptomatic in healthy populations, but is symptomatic or even lethal in immunocompromised/immune-immature people, such as HIV-infected patients, transplant recipients and new-borns infected in utero. The virus can enter latency after primary infection, but can be re-activated at any time.

In the general population, the immune system restricts HCMV infection to latency and is asymptomatic. However, HCMV infection causes severe diseases in immune-immature and immune-compromised patients. This includes transplant recipients, who often suffer severe complications including pneumonia, hepatitis and gastrointestinal ulcerations after transplantation. This is a consequence of their impaired immune system which allows the latent HCMV infection to be reactivated. Consequently, transplant recipients always receive pre-emptive or prophylactic antiviral therapy but nevertheless have a high risk of developing drug resistance and HCMV reactivation.

To date, no effective vaccine is available for HCMV, and only four licensed drugs (ganciclovir/valganciclovir, cidofovir and foscarnet, which all target viral DNA replication) are available. Most recently, in the US in 2017, letermovir, which targets viral DNA packaging, was licenced for prophylaxis in bone marrow patients. However, all of these drugs can cause severe side effects and, in the long-term, drug resistance inevitably occurs due to accumulation of mutations in the HCMV genome. In spite of these problems, HCMV drug resistance has not been well characterized, leaving a huge gap in options for clinical therapy and treatment.

HCMV studies to date have primarily been experimental and have used “classical” approaches to identify key proteins and clarify their roles in the infection process. Computational methods can assist in genome characterization and is widely used in the study of other viral and bacterial genomes, but this approach has not been widely adopted in the investigation of the HCMV genome. We are developing computational methods to perform genome wide comparison of HCMV strains, including both coding and non-coding (miRNA) regions. In this work, we collaboratiing with the lab of Luo Minhua in Wuhan Institute of Virology and hospitals in Beijing and Changsha who have been collecting viral isolates from transplant patients. This work is supported by a Scientia Fellowship from UiO

Does SARS‐CoV‐2 has a longer incubation period than SARS and MERS?

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Rabies

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

China has been facing an ongoing rabies epizootic since the middle of the 1990s that, consistent with many other countries experiencing major extended rabies outbreaks, is primarily spread by domestic dogs transmitting the rabies virus (RABV), a species of the Genus Lyssavirus. The southern and eastern parts of the country report the majority of human cases, but almost all provinces have experienced some degree of impact from the disease. For several years now, we have been working with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate surveillance data (in the form of demographics and sequence data collected from isolates) From this, we have built up a detailed picture of the current epizootic so that we can identify the origin of new cases (i.e., from dogs, or wildlife). This is important as it allows us to determine whether existing control techniques are effectively controlling the spread of the current epizootic and if current checkpoints at national borders are preventing the introduction of new cases from neighboring countries.

TBGEN

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

3D cell culture models and organ‐on‐a‐chip: Meet separation science and mass spectrometry

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Systematic assessment of commercially available low-input miRNA library preparation kits

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

miRBaseMiner, a tool for investigating miRBase content

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The reemergence of human rabies and emergence of an Indian subcontinent lineage in Tibet, China

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Does SARS‐CoV‐2 has a longer incubation period than SARS and MERS?

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Identification and BAC construction of Han, the first characterized HCMV clinical strain in China

Sun, 01 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Genome comparison provides molecular insights into the phylogeny of the reassigned new genus Lysinibacillus

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Resistant mutations and quasispecies complexity of hepatitis B virus during telbivudine treatment"

Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

BlastGraph: a comparative genomics tool based on BLAST and graph algorithms

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Rabies cases in the west of China have two distinct origins

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Identifying the pattern of molecular evolution for Zaire ebolavirus in the 2014 outbreak in West Africa

Mon, 01 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

MicroRNA miR-21 attenuates human cytomegalovirus replication in neural cells by targeting Cdc25a

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Does SARS‐CoV‐2 has a longer incubation period than SARS and MERS?

Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Comparison of genotypes I and III in Japanese encephalitis virus reveals distinct differences in their genetic and host diversity

Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Reassortment and migration analysis of Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever virus

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Molecular phylodynamic analysis indicates lineage displacement occurred in Chinese rabies epidemics between 1949 to 2010

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Computational evolutionary analysis of the overlapped surface (S) and polymerase (P) region in hepatitis B virus indicates the spacer domain in P is crucial for survival

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Genetic characterization and transmitted drug resistance of the HIV type 1 epidemic in men who have sex with men in Beijing, China

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Comparative proteomics reveal fundamental structural and functional differences between the two progeny phenotypes of a baculovirus

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

National borders effectively halt the spread of rabies: the current rabies epidemic in China is dislocated from cases in neighboring countries

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Observation of non-principal plane neutral points in the upwelling polarized light field above a water surface

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The spatial and temporal dynamics of rabies in China

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Emergence of genotype I of Japanese encephalitis virus as the dominant genotype in Asia

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000