Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV) is an emerging virus lethal to tilapia, which threatens the global tilapia aquaculture with severe implications for food security. TiLV possesses similar features to orthomyxoviruses but is classified in the sole and the monotypic genus Tilapinevirus of the family Amnoonviridae. TiLV enveloped virions encapsidate a genome comprising ten segments of single-stranded, negative RNA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFControlling the infectivity of respiratory RNA viruses is critical, especially during the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. There is an unmet need for therapeutic agents that can reduce viral replication, preferably independent of the accumulation of viral mutations. Zinc ions have an apparent activity as modulators of intracellular viral RNA replication and thus, appear attractive in reducing viral RNA load and infectivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmerging viruses impose global threats to animal and human populations and may bear novel genes with limited homology to known sequences, necessitating the development of novel approaches to infer and test protein functions. This challenge is dramatically evident in tilapia lake virus (TiLV), an emerging "orthomyxo-like" virus that threatens the global tilapia aquaculture and food security of millions of people. The majority of TiLV proteins have no homology to known sequences, impeding functionality assessments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused a severe global pandemic. Mice models are essential to investigate infection pathology, antiviral drugs, and vaccine development. However, wild-type mice lack the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) that mediates SARS-CoV-2 entry into human cells and consequently are not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSTAT1 is a critical effector and a target gene of interferon (IFN) signaling, and thus a central mediator of antiviral responses. As both a mediator and a target of IFN signals, STAT1 expression reports on, and determines IFN activity. Gene expression analyses of melanoma patient samples revealed varied levels of STAT1 expression, which highly correlated with expression of >700 genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNatural killer (NK) cells are capable of killing various pathogens upon stimulation of activating receptors. Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a respiratory virus, which was discovered in 2001 and is responsible for acute respiratory tract infection in infants and children worldwide. HMPV infection is very common, infecting around 70% of all children under the age of five.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe innate sensing system is equipped with PRRs specialized in recognizing molecular structures (PAMPs) of various pathogens. This leads to the induction of anti-viral genes and inhibition of virus growth. Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a major respiratory virus that causes an upper and lower respiratory tract infection in children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Tilapia are an important global food source due to their omnivorous diet, tolerance for high-density aquaculture, and relative disease resistance. Since 2009, tilapia aquaculture has been threatened by mass die-offs in farmed fish in Israel and Ecuador. Here we report evidence implicating a novel orthomyxo-like virus in these outbreaks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTilapines are important for the sustainability of ecological systems and serve as the second most important group of farmed fish worldwide. Significant mortality of wild and cultured tilapia has been observed recently in Israel. The etiological agent of this disease, a novel RNA virus, is described here, and procedures allowing its isolation and detection are revealed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Synonymous or silent mutations are usually thought to evolve neutrally. However, accumulating recent evidence has demonstrated that silent mutations may destabilize RNA structures or disrupt cis regulatory motifs superimposed on coding sequences. Such observations suggest the existence of stretches of codon sites that are evolutionary conserved at both DNA-RNA and protein levels.
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