Publications by authors named "Nina Riebesehl"
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a hepatotropic, blood-borne virus, but in up to one-third of infections of the transmission route remained unidentified. Viral genome copies of HCV have been identified in several body fluids, however, non-parental transmission upon exposure to contaminated body fluids seems to be rare. Several body fluids, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatitis C virus (HCV) induces interferon (IFN) stimulated genes in the liver despite of distinct innate immune evasion mechanisms, suggesting that beyond HCV infected cells other cell types contribute to innate immune activation. Upon coculture with HCV replicating cells, human CD141+ myeloid dendritic cells (DC) produce type III IFN, whereas plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) mount type I IFN responses. Due to limitations in the genetic manipulation of primary human DCs, we explored HCV mediated stimulation of murine DC subsets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious studies using lipid extracts of heather (Calluna vulgaris) leaves showed the presence of high concentrations of ursolic and oleanolic acid. These two compounds have been reported to present antiviral activity against hepatitis C virus (HCV). In this work, the supercritical fluid extraction of heather was studied with the aim of assessing a potential anti-HCV activity of the extracts owing to their triterpenic acid content.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVirus inactivation by chemical disinfectants is an important instrument for infection control in medical settings, but the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. In this study, we systematically investigated the effects of several antiviral treatments on hepatitis C virus (HCV) particles as model for enveloped viruses. Studies were performed with authentic cell culture-derived viruses, and the influence of chemical disinfectants, heat, and UV treatment on HCV was analyzed by the determination of infectious particles in a limiting-dilution assay, by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, by core enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and by proteolytic protection assay.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has a very narrow species and tissue tropism and efficiently replicates only in humans and the chimpanzee. Recently, several studies identified close relatives to HCV in different animal species. Among these novel viruses, the nonprimate hepaciviruses (NPHV) that infect horses are the closest relatives of HCV described to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The Japanese fulminant hepatitis-1 (JFH1)-based hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection system has permitted analysis of the complete viral replication cycle in vitro. However, lack of robust infection systems for primary, patient-derived isolates limits systematic functional studies of viral intrahost variation and vaccine development. Therefore, we aimed at developing cell culture models for incorporation of primary patient-derived glycoproteins into infectious HCV particles for in-depth mechanistic studies of envelope gene function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Serine is encoded by two distinct codons (UCN and AGY), and switching between them involves intermediate residues like threonine or cysteine and cannot occur through single nucleotide changes.
- Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects a significant portion of the population and its surface glycoproteins (E1 and E2) are crucial for infection and immune response, showing evidence of historical codon-switching events at conserved serine residues.
- Analysis reveals that the presence of intermediate phenotypes is limited due to their negative impact on HCV functionality and their increased vulnerability to immune targeting, leading to natural selection that restricts their prevalence in global HCV lineages.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly variable and associated with chronic liver disease. Viral isolates are grouped into seven genotypes (GTs). Accumulating evidence indicates that viral determinants in the core to NS2 proteins modulate the efficiency of virus production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission among people who inject drugs remains a challenging public health problem. We investigated the risk of HCV transmission by analyzing the direct association of HCV with filters, water to dilute drugs, and water containers.
Methods: Experiments were designed to replicate practices by people who inject drugs and include routinely used injection equipment.