Publications by authors named "Jim Zoladek"
Article Synopsis
- Usutu virus (USUV) and West Nile virus (WNV) are mosquito-borne flaviviruses that primarily affect wild birds but can cause serious neurological issues in humans.
- These viruses are suppressed by type I interferon (IFN), which hinders their replication and spread, but USUV shows a unique resistance to the ISG20 gene, which is involved in this suppression.
- The study reveals that the USUV genome's resistance to ISG20 is due to a specific sequence in its 3' untranslated region, suggesting that this feature could potentially be transferred to other flaviviruses to help them evade host defenses.
Mosquito-borne flaviviruses and type I interferon: catch me if you can!
Front Microbiol
October 2023
Mosquito-borne flaviviruses include many viruses that are important human pathogens, including Yellow fever virus, Dengue virus, Zika virus and West Nile virus. While these viruses have long been confined to tropical regions, they now pose a global public health concern, as the geographical distribution of their mosquito vectors has dramatically expanded. The constant threat of flavivirus emergence and re-emergence underlines the need for a better understanding of the relationships between these viruses and their hosts.
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- Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, emerged in the Pacific in 2007 and has since spread to the Americas, being mainly asymptomatic but potentially causing severe neurological issues.
- Current research has discovered two peptides from claudin proteins (CL7.1 and CL1.1) that effectively inhibit ZIKV infection in human cell lines by disrupting viral E-mediated membrane fusion.
- Additionally, CL1.1 was found to also block infection from yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis viruses, indicating potential for developing new antiviral therapies targeting multiple flaviviruses.
Zika virus (ZIKV) infection has been associated with a series of neurological pathologies. In patients with ZIKV-induced neurological disorders, the virus is detectable in the central nervous system. Thus, ZIKV is capable of neuroinvasion, presumably through infection of the endothelial cells that constitute the blood-brain barrier (BBB).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMuscle cells are potential targets of many arboviruses, such as Ross River, Dengue, Sindbis, and chikungunya viruses, that may be involved in the physiopathological course of the infection. During the recent outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV), myalgia was one of the most frequently reported symptoms. We investigated the susceptibility of human muscle cells to ZIKV infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfections due to arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses) have dramatically increased worldwide during the last few years. In humans, symptoms associated with acute infection of most arboviruses are often described as "dengue-like syndrome", including fever, rash, conjunctivitis, arthralgia, and muscular symptoms such as myalgia, myositis, or rhabdomyolysis. In some cases, muscular symptoms may persist over months, especially following flavivirus and alphavirus infections.
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