Publications by authors named "Cigdem Alkan"

Objectives: Perinatal depression (PD) affects individuals during pregnancy and early parenthood, resembling major depression. Recent research highlights paternal perinatal depression (PPD) in fathers. PPD has adverse effects on fathers and their children.

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Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic viral disease endemic to Africa and the Middle East. Live-attenuated RVF vaccines have been studied for both veterinary and human use due to their strong immunogenicity and cost-effective manufacturing. The live-attenuated MP-12 vaccine has been conditionally approved for veterinary use in the U.

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The NSs protein is a major virulence factor in bunyaviruses, crucial for viral pathogenesis. However, assessing NSs protein function can be challenging due to its inhibition of cellular RNA polymerase II, impacting NSs protein expression from plasmid DNA. The recombinant Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) MP-12 strain (rMP-12), a highly attenuated vaccine strain, can be safely manipulated under biosafety level 2 conditions.

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Article Synopsis
  • Antagonistic relationships, like those between hosts and viruses, can drive rapid evolution; the Orsay virus is unique for infecting C. elegans, while several RNA viruses infect its close relative C. briggsae.
  • Different strains of C. briggsae show varying sensitivity to the Santeuil (SANTV) and Le Blanc (LEBV) viruses, with temperate strains typically being sensitive and tropical strains resistant; some strains exhibit specific resistances to particular viruses.
  • Researchers are mapping genomic regions that contribute to viral resistance using a genetic approach, identifying key Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) on specific chromosomes, which aids in understanding viral interaction and host responses.
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Unlabelled: Heartland virus (HRTV) is an emerging tick-borne bandavirus that causes a febrile illness of varying severity in humans, with cases reported in eastern and midwestern regions of the United States. No vaccines or approved therapies are available to prevent or treat HRTV disease. Here, we describe the genetic changes, natural history of disease, and pathogenesis of a mouse-adapted HRTV (MA-HRTV) that is uniformly lethal in 7- to 8-week-old AG129 mice at low challenge doses.

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Rift Valley fever is a zoonotic viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes, impacting both humans and livestock. Currently, there are no approved vaccines or antiviral treatments for humans. This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro efficacy of chemical compounds targeting the Gc fusion mechanism.

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Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes and causes abortion storms, fetal malformations, and newborn animal deaths in livestock ruminants. In humans, RVF can manifest as hemorrhagic fever, encephalitis, or retinitis. Outbreaks of RVF have been occurring in Africa since the early 20th century and continue to pose a threat to both humans and animals in various regions such as Africa, Madagascar, the Comoros, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

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Article Synopsis
  • Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a disease spread by mosquitoes, mainly affecting regions in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, causing significant outbreaks in both humans and livestock.
  • Single-dose vaccinations with a modified RVF virus, known as RVax-1, show promise in preventing the spread of the virus without allowing it to mutate into a harmful strain.
  • RVax-1 has been found to be safe and effective in a mouse model, providing strong immune protection while being unable to replicate in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, making it a strong candidate for future vaccination efforts against RVF.
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Phlebotomine sandflies are vectors of phleboviruses that cause sandfly fever or meningitis with significant implications for public health. Although several strains of these viruses had been isolated in Iran in the late 1970's, there was no recent data about the present situation at the outset of this study. Entomological investigations performed in 2009 and 2011 in Iran collected 4,770 sandflies from 10 different regions.

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Background: Many studies have presented virus sequences which suggest the existence of a variety of putative new phleboviruses transmitted by sandflies in the Old World. However, in most of these studies, only partial sequences in the polymerase or the nucleoprotein genes were characterised. Therefore to further our understand of the presence and potential medical importance of sandfly-borne phleboviruses that circulate in southern Anatolia, we initiated field campaigns in 2012 and 2013 designed to identify, isolate and characterise phleboviruses in sandflies in this region.

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A new phlebovirus, Medjerda Valley virus (MVV), was isolated from one pool of Phlebotomus sp. (Diptera; Psychodidae) sandflies trapped in the vicinity of the Utique site, northern Tunisia. Genetic analysis based on complete coding of genomic sequences of the three RNA segments indicated that MVV is most closely related to members of the Salehabad virus species, where it is the fourth virus for which the complete sequence is available.

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Unlabelled: A new flavivirus, Ecuador Paraiso Escondido virus (EPEV), named after the village where it was discovered, was isolated from sand flies (Psathyromyia abonnenci, formerly Lutzomyia abonnenci) that are unique to the New World. This represents the first sand fly-borne flavivirus identified in the New World. EPEV exhibited a typical flavivirus genome organization.

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Unlabelled: A new phlebovirus, Adana virus, was isolated from a pool of Phlebotomus spp. (Diptera; Psychodidae) in the province of Adana, in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. Genetic analysis based on complete coding of genomic sequences indicated that Adana virus belongs to the Salehabad virus species of the genus Phlebovirus in the family Bunyaviridae.

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Background: Sandfly-borne phleboviruses are present in North Africa where they can infect humans in regions where Leishmania infantum, the causative agent of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis in the Western Mediterranean basin is present affecting both humans and dogs. We investigated the capacity of dogs to be used as sentinels for sandfly-borne phleboviruses as previously shown for leishmaniasis.

Findings: A total of 312 sera were collected from guard dogs in two different bioclimatic regions (governorates of Kairouan and Bizerte) of Tunisia where zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis has been reported.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Schmallenberg virus (SBV) has emerged in Europe since 2011, causing congenital deformities in the young of infected ruminants and being transmitted mainly by Culicoides biting midges.
  • In research conducted in mainland France and Sardinia, key midge species like C. obsoletus and C. nubeculosus were found to carry SBV, while C. imicola showed low infection rates, indicating the need for further studies on its role in transmission.
  • Laboratory tests revealed that common mosquito species Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens do not replicate SBV effectively, suggesting they are not important vectors, and a review of vector competence studies across Europe highlights differences
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Sandfly-borne phleboviruses may cause a transient febrile illness (sandfly fever) or more severe neuroinvasive disease. In the Old World, they are vectored by phlebotomine flies, which are widely distributed in the Mediterranean basin, North Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and central Asia. High seroprevalence rates have been recorded in humans and domestic animals in areas where sandflies are present.

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