Publications by authors named "Mhairi Ferguson"
Unlabelled: The A7(74) strain of Semliki Forest virus (SFV; genus Alphavirus) is avirulent in adult mice, while the L10 strain is virulent in mice of all ages. It has been previously demonstrated that this phenotypic difference is associated with nonstructural protein 3 (nsP3). Consensus clones of L10 (designated SFV6) and A7(74) (designated A774wt) were used to construct a panel of recombinant viruses.
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- Semliki Forest virus (SFV) is a model for studying virus encephalitis, with significant differences in virulence observed between strains SFV4 and L10, the latter causing severe disease in mice.
- Genetic analysis identified 12 nucleotide differences between L10 and SFV4, with six being vital for virulence, leading to the creation of a new clone, SFV6, which demonstrated high viremia and neuroinvasiveness.
- The study highlights the importance of specific amino acids in the E2 glycoprotein that affect cell entry, virulence, and reliance on glycosaminoglycans, which could inform future research on related viral diseases.
Several components of the mosquito immune system including the RNA interference (RNAi), JAK/STAT, Toll and IMD pathways have previously been implicated in controlling arbovirus infections. In contrast, the role of the phenoloxidase (PO) cascade in mosquito antiviral immunity is unknown. Here we show that conditioned medium from the Aedes albopictus-derived U4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe alphavirus Semliki Forest virus (SFV) and its derived vectors induce apoptosis in mammalian cells. Here, we show that apoptosis is associated with the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential followed by the activation of caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9. Cell death can be partially suppressed by treatment with the pan-caspase inhibitor zVAD-fmk.
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