Publications by authors named "Kimberly Schmied"
Article Synopsis
- - Approved vaccines are good for preventing severe COVID-19, but new variants and transmission need a stronger immune response, leading to the creation of modified live-attenuated vaccines (LAVs) that recode the SARS-CoV-2 genome.
- - The new vaccines, called OTS-206 and OTS-228, are designed to be safe and effective, with OTS-228 showing no side effects or transmission in animal studies, and can be given intranasally.
- - A single dose of OTS-228 not only provides strong immunity against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain but also offers broad protection against variants like Omicron, making this approach potentially valuable for other emerging viruses as well. *
Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a fatal feline disease, caused by a feline coronavirus (FCoV), namely feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV). We produced a baby hamster kidney 21 (BHK) cell line expressing a serotype I FCoV replicon RNA with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene (BHK-F-Rep) and used it as an screening system to test different antiviral compounds. Two inhibitors of the FCoV main protease (M), namely GC376 and Nirmatrelvir, as well as the nucleoside analog Remdesivir proved to be effective in inhibiting the replicon system.
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- The Omicron-BA.1 variant of concern became the dominant strain globally in early 2022, prompting the need for extensive research using primary cell cultures and animal models to understand its characteristics compared to the Delta variant.* -
- In laboratory studies, Omicron-BA.1 showed increased early replication in human nasal cells but less replication in bronchial cells; however, in animal models like hamsters and ferrets, Delta variant remained more dominant.* -
- The research revealed that the spike gene from Omicron-BA.1 leads to lower replication and pathogenicity in certain mice, while also indicating that this variant may escape immune responses generated by mRNA vaccines, contributing to its dominance over other variants.*
Molecular virology tools are critical for basic studies of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and for developing new therapeutics. Experimental systems that do not rely on viruses capable of spread are needed for potential use in lower-containment settings. In this work, we use a yeast-based reverse genetics system to develop spike-deleted SARS-CoV-2 self-replicating RNAs.
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- Reverse genetics is crucial for understanding viral behavior and developing vaccines, but working with large RNA viruses like coronaviruses is challenging due to their size and stability issues.
- A new yeast-based synthetic genomics platform allows researchers to reconstruct various RNA viruses by assembling viral DNA fragments in yeast, streamlining the cloning process.
- This method enabled the rapid engineering of SARS-CoV-2 clones in just a week, which could significantly improve responses to new virus outbreaks by allowing for quick analysis of emerging variants.