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Virology is the scientific discipline concerned with the study of the biology of viruses and viral diseases, including the distribution, biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology, ecology, evolution and clinical aspects of viruses.
Age is the single greatest risk factor driving mortality after encounter with SARS-CoV-2. A new study shows that the composition of nasal epithelial cells varies across ages, facilitating SARS-CoV-2 growth and spread in older people.
Animals that receive an inhibitor of an antiviral cell-death response called necroptosis are less likely to die of influenza even at a late stage of infection. This has implications for the development of therapies for respiratory diseases.
Oxygen is an essential requirement for aerobic organisms. Here the authors explore the role of oxygen in the antiviral innate response in multiple models of infection and suggest oxygen enhances the antiviral innate response via EGLN1 hydroxylation of IRF3.
The structures of the retrovirus-derived human syncytin-1 and suppressyn in complexes with their shared receptor reveal an ancient cellular recognition mechanism that underlies key morphological and immunological functions in placenta.
Immunization via the respiratory route is predicted to increase the effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Here, Kaiser et al. describe a murine pneumonia virus vectored vaccine expressing spike protein, and show that intranasal immunization of male rhesus macaques provides good mucosal and systemic immunogenicity and efficacy.
Genomic analyses have indicated that a small number of virus particles usually found new infections. Here, the authors use a mathematical model to show that this small transmission bottleneck is a result of the physical processes of airborne virus emission, diffusion, and inhalation.
In this study, the authors report that bat H9N2 influenza A virus replicates and transmits in ferrets, efficiently infects human lung explant cultures, evades MxA antiviral activity in mice, and has low antigenic similarity to seasonal N2, meeting pre-pandemic criteria.
In this Journal Club, Ricardo Soto-Rifo discusses a study on intron-containing HIV-1 RNA, revealing its role as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern in myeloid cells, which has implications for immune activation, inflammation and clinical outcomes.
This study shows that a single-stranded RNA phage binds to the Pseudomonas aeruginosa type IV pilus, leading to phage entry into the cell and the detachment of the pilus, which impairs bacterial motility.
Age is the single greatest risk factor driving mortality after encounter with SARS-CoV-2. A new study shows that the composition of nasal epithelial cells varies across ages, facilitating SARS-CoV-2 growth and spread in older people.