Publications by authors named "J F Keown"
Nipah virus is a highly virulent zoonotic paramyxovirus causing severe respiratory and neurological disease. Despite its lethality, there is no approved treatment for Nipah virus infection. The viral polymerase complex, composed of the polymerase (L) and phosphoprotein (P), replicates and transcribes the viral RNA genome.
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- Hantaviridae is a family of RNA viruses that includes pathogens affecting humans and animals, and they contain a polymerase essential for their genome replication.
- The study focuses on the expression and purification of the polymerase from the Hantaan virus, utilizing Cryo-EM to explore its structure in detail, achieving resolutions between 2.7 to 3.3 Å.
- Important findings include the identification of new conformations of the polymerase and the observation of its interaction with RNA and nucleotides, which provide insights into its transcription and replication mechanism, paving the way for potential therapeutic developments.
Avian influenza A viruses (IAVs) pose a public health threat, as they are capable of triggering pandemics by crossing species barriers. Replication of avian IAVs in mammalian cells is hindered by species-specific variation in acidic nuclear phosphoprotein 32 (ANP32) proteins, which are essential for viral RNA genome replication. Adaptive mutations enable the IAV RNA polymerase (FluPolA) to surmount this barrier.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile online monitoring of physicochemical parameters has widely been incorporated into drinking water treatment systems, online microbial monitoring has lagged behind, resulting in the use of surrogate parameters (disinfectant residual, applied dose, concentration × time, CT) to assess disinfection system performance. Online flow cytometry (online FCM) allows for automated quantification of total and intact microbial cells. This study sought to investigate the feasibility of online FCM for full-scale drinking water ozone disinfection system performance monitoring.
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- Influenza A viruses need to interact with host proteins, like RNA polymerase II (Pol II), to copy their RNA and create new viruses.
- This study used advanced imaging techniques (cryogenic electron microscopy) to visualize how the 1918 influenza virus polymerase binds with a specific part of Pol II, revealing new structural details and important amino acids involved in this interaction.
- The research findings help us understand how the virus transcribes its RNA and could inform the development of targeted antiviral therapies.