Publications by authors named "Jens Kuhn"

Background: The robustness and persistence of vaccine antigen-induced antibodies are often used as proxy indicators of vaccine efficacy, but immune responses to vaccine vectors are typically less well-defined. Our study considered the kinetics of immunoglobulin (IgG) responses against the vector (vesicular stomatitis Indiana virus [VSIV]) nucleoprotein (N) and the inserted antigen (Ebola virus [EBOV]) glycoprotein (GP1,2) components of the rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP (rVSV-ZEBOV) vaccine and evaluated their use as biomarkers to confirm self-reported vaccination status.

Methods: From the Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL) I clinical trial (NCT02344407), we randomly selected 212 participants who received rVSV-ZEBOV (n=107) or placebo (n=105).

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Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS) is a chronic tic disorder, characterized by unwanted motor actions and vocalizations. While brain stimulation techniques show promise in reducing tic severity, optimal target networks are not well-defined. Here, we leverage datasets from two independent deep brain stimulation (DBS) cohorts and a cohort of tic-inducing lesions to infer critical networks for treatment and occurrence of tics by mapping stimulation sites and lesions to a functional connectome derived from 1,000 healthy participants.

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  • SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, has caused millions of deaths, highlighting the need to understand its emergence and how it spills over to humans.
  • A study analyzed recombination among coronaviruses, identifying 199 events with a majority occurring within species rather than between them, and found that these genomic changes predominantly affect specific regions of the virus's genome.
  • The research concluded that SARS-CoV-2 likely gained its unique features through recombination with related viruses in the same species, emphasizing the importance of understanding these processes to prevent future outbreaks.
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rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP and Ad26.ZEBOV, MVA-BN-Filo are WHO-prequalified vaccination regimens against Ebola virus disease (EVD). Challenges associated with measuring long-term clinical protection warrant the evaluation of immune response kinetics after vaccination.

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  • - Lassa virus (LASV) leads to hundreds of thousands of infections in Western Africa annually, with about 20% progressing to Lassa fever, a serious disease that has a high fatality rate.
  • - Currently, there are no approved vaccines or treatments for Lassa fever, but researchers have been working on recombinant LASVs (rLASVs) that show promising results as vaccines in animal models.
  • - The new vaccine candidate, rLASV/IGR-CD, demonstrated high safety and effectiveness in guinea pigs, offering complete protection against lethal LASV exposure and advancing the development of a live-attenuated vaccine for Lassa fever.
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  • The article outlines recent updates to virus taxonomy approved by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) in April 2024.
  • The ICTV invited members to vote on 203 taxonomic proposals, resulting in significant additions across various levels, including one new phylum and 3,547 new species.
  • The total number of established virus species now stands at 14,690, following the ratification of proposals for species name formatting to the binomial system.
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  • rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP is a vaccine that helps protect people from the Ebola virus and is the first one to be officially approved for this purpose.
  • This study wanted to see how well a booster shot given 18 months after the first vaccine dose helped keep the immune response strong for a longer time.
  • Healthy adults who might be at risk of exposure to Ebola participated in the trial, and the results measured their antibody levels 36 months after the first vaccination to compare those who got the booster with those who did not.
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ADP-ribosylation is a highly dynamic and fully reversible post-translational modification performed by poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) that modulates protein function, abundance, localization and turnover. Here we show that influenza A virus infection causes a rapid and dramatic upregulation of global ADP-ribosylation that inhibits viral replication. Mass spectrometry defined for the first time the global ADP-ribosylome during infection, creating an infection-specific profile with almost 4,300 modification sites on ~1,080 host proteins, as well as over 100 modification sites on viral proteins.

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  • Before 2017, a family of viruses related to the Bunyamwera virus included five genera of arthropod and rodent viruses with tri-segmented negative-sense RNA genomes.
  • In 2017, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses promoted this family to an order and added more families for various non-segmented to polysegmented viruses across different life forms.
  • By April 2024, due to ongoing discoveries, this order was elevated to a class, now encompassing hundreds of viruses, many of which are pathogenic to humans, animals, plants, and fungi.
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SUMMARYPolintons are 15-20 kb-long self-synthesizing transposons that are widespread in eukaryotic, and in particular protist, genomes. Apart from a transposase and a protein-primed DNA polymerase, polintons encode homologs of major and minor jelly-roll capsid proteins, DNA-packaging ATPases, and proteases involved in capsid maturation of diverse eukaryotic viruses of kingdom . Given the conservation of these structural and morphogenetic proteins among polintons, these elements are predicted to alternate between transposon and viral lifestyles and, although virions have thus far not been detected, are classified as viruses (class ) in the phylum .

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  • Phasmaviridae is a family of negative-sense RNA viruses with genome sizes ranging from approximately 9.7 to 15.8 kb.
  • These viruses are primarily transmitted and maintained by insect vectors.
  • They produce enveloped particles with three RNA segments that code for essential proteins including nucleoprotein (N), glycoprotein precursor (GPC), and a large protein (L) that contains the RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) domain.
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Fungi harbor a vast diversity of mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Recently, novel fungal MGEs, tentatively referred to as 'ambiviruses,' were described. 'Ambiviruses' have single-stranded RNA genomes of about 4-5 kb in length that contain at least two open reading frames (ORFs) in non-overlapping ambisense orientation.

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The phylum (kingdom , realm ) is a broad assemblage of diverse viruses with comparatively short double-stranded DNA genomes (<50 kbp) that produce icosahedral capsids built from double jelly-roll major capsid proteins. Preplasmiviricots infect hosts from all cellular domains, testifying to their ancient origin, and, in particular, are associated with six of the seven supergroups of eukaryotes. Preplasmiviricots comprise four major groups of viruses, namely, polintons, polinton-like viruses (PLVs), virophages, and adenovirids.

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The phylum (kingdom , realm ) is a broad assemblage of diverse viruses with comparatively short double-stranded DNA genomes (<50 kbp) that produce icosahedral capsids built from double jelly-roll major capsid proteins. Preplasmiviricots infect hosts from all cellular domains, testifying to their ancient origin and, in particular, are associated with six of the seven supergroups of eukaryotes. Preplasmiviricots comprise four major groups of viruses, namely, polintons, polinton-like viruses (PLVs), virophages, and adenovirids.

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  • * Norwaviruses and orthonairoviruses are notable as they can lead to febrile illnesses in humans, while some orthonairoviruses can cause varying degrees of disease severity in mammals, from mild to fatal.
  • * Nairovirids produce enveloped virions with one to three single-stranded RNA segments that code for essential proteins, including nucleoproteins and RNA polymerases necessary for their replication.
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  • The 2023 monkeypox epidemic originated from a specific lineage of the monkeypox virus traced back to Nigeria in 1971, with a subclade IIb showing higher person-to-person transmission rates due to genomic changes.
  • Researchers used advanced techniques to analyze the genome of the monkeypox virus from the current epidemic, highlighting significant variations in low-complexity regions (LCRs) that are often overlooked.
  • The study found that variations in LCRs may influence the expression and function of key poxvirus genes, suggesting that future genome studies should focus on these regions to better understand differences in the virus's behavior.
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Introduction: Mammarenaviruses are negative-sense bisegmented enveloped RNA viruses that are endemic in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Several are highly virulent, causing acute human diseases associated with high case fatality rates, and are considered to be significant with respect to public health impact or bioterrorism threat.

Areas Covered: This review summarizes the status quo of treatment development, starting with drugs that are in advanced stages of evaluation in early clinical trials, followed by promising candidate medical countermeasures emerging from bench analyses and investigational animal research.

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is a family for negative-sense RNA viruses with genomes of about 10.5-14.6 kb.

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Genetically diverse simian arteriviruses (simarteriviruses) naturally infect geographically and phylogenetically diverse monkeys, and cross-species transmission and emergence are of considerable concern. Characterization of most simarteriviruses beyond sequence analysis has not been possible because the viruses fail to propagate in the laboratory. We attempted to isolate 4 simarteriviruses, Kibale red colobus virus 1, Pebjah virus, simian hemorrhagic fever virus, and Southwest baboon virus 1, by inoculating an immortalized grivet cell line (known to replicate simian hemorrhagic fever virus), primary macaque cells, macrophages derived from macaque induced pluripotent stem cells, and mice engrafted with macaque CD34+-enriched hematopoietic stem cells.

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Viruses are encapsidated mobile genetic elements that rely on host cells for replication. Several cytoplasmic RNA viruses synthesize proteins and/or RNAs that translocate to infected cell nuclei. However, the underlying mechanisms and role(s) of cytoplasmic-nuclear trafficking are unclear.

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  • Kolmioviridae is a family of negative-sense RNA viruses with circular genomes, found in various animals including mammals and birds.
  • They can cause significant diseases, such as severe hepatitis in humans, particularly in the case of deltaviruses.
  • Kolmiovirids rely on unrelated helper viruses for their envelopes and require specific cellular machinery for replication, including host DNA-directed RNA polymerase II.
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