Publications by authors named "Run P"

Orthohantaviruses are emerging zoonotic viruses that can infect humans via the respiratory tract. There is an unmet need for an in vivo model to study infection of different orthohantaviruses in physiologically relevant tissue and to assess the efficacy of novel pan-orthohantavirus countermeasures. Here, we describe the use of a human lung xenograft mouse model to study the permissiveness for different orthohantavirus species and to assess its utility for preclinical testing of therapeutics.

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  • Scientists established a direct-contact transmission model for the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.5 variant using Syrian hamsters, which are highly susceptible to the virus.
  • The research involved testing different inoculation doses and co-housing durations to ensure reliable transmission and comparing viral loads and tissue damage between infected donor and naïve recipient hamsters.
  • Results indicated that while both male and female hamsters could be infected similarly, males shed significantly more infectious virus; overall, the Omicron BA.5 variant resulted in lower viral loads and less severe symptoms compared to prior strains, highlighting the model's potential for studying new treatment strategies.
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  • - Morbilliviruses, like measles virus (MeV), affect various mammals and are linked to significant health issues, particularly in unvaccinated populations, which has prompted the need for better animal models for studying their effects.
  • - Canine distemper virus (CDV) shares similarities with MeV but tends to be more lethal, leading researchers to create five recombinant CDVs to evaluate their potential as safer models for studying morbillivirus pathogenesis in ferrets.
  • - Out of the five recombinant CDVs tested, one exhibited a self-limiting infection profile that mimicked measles, revealing its promise for future studies on disease mechanisms and potential treatments for morbillivirus infections.
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Unlabelled: Human metapneumovirus (HMPV), a member of the family, causes upper and lower respiratory tract infections in humans. studies with HMPV have mostly been performed in monolayers of undifferentiated epithelial cells. studies in cynomolgus macaques and cotton rats have shown that ciliated epithelial cells are the main target of HMPV infection, but these observations cannot be studied in monolayer systems.

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  • A female harbour porpoise got a skin disease caused by a type of fungus called Pythium flevoense after being trapped in a net.
  • Pythium infections, usually seen in freshwater animals, are rare in sea animals like porpoises, and this specific type was previously not known to affect them.
  • Despite treatment, the porpoise couldn’t recover and had to be euthanized; tests showed the disease was caused by Pythium flevoense, so it could be a threat to other marine mammals too.
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  • Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a dangerous virus that can make many types of animals very sick and can even cause death.
  • Scientists experimented with ferrets to understand how this virus spreads and affects the body, using a special virus that lights up to track its movements.
  • Most of the infected ferrets got really sick and had to be put down after about 20 days, but two of them survived and showed signs of fighting off the virus with antibodies.
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Raccoons are naturally susceptible to canine distemper virus (CDV) infection and can be a potential source of spill-over events. CDV is a highly contagious morbillivirus that infects multiple species of carnivores and omnivores, resulting in severe and often fatal disease. Here, we used a recombinant CDV (rCDV) based on a full-genome sequence detected in a naturally infected raccoon to perform pathogenesis studies in raccoons.

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  • * Research into the evolution of HPAI H5N1 has largely focused on respiratory infections, but this study aims to explore the evolutionary dynamics of the virus when it infects the CNS, revealing variability in replication among individual ferrets.
  • * The study identified specific genetic mutations in the virus that enhance its polymerase activity in the lab, yet these mutations also appeared to limit the virus's ability to spread to other body parts while showing potential adaptability within the CNS. *
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is associated with various neurological complications. Although the mechanism is not fully understood, several studies have shown that neuroinflammation occurs in the acute and post-acute phase. As these studies have predominantly been performed with isolates from 2020, it is unknown if there are differences among SARS-CoV-2 variants in their ability to cause neuroinflammation.

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  • There is an urgent need for effective treatment strategies for COVID-19, and while some clinical trials have tested convalescent plasma, its effectiveness is not yet proven and neutralizing antibody levels are often not measured.
  • Research showed that hamsters treated with high concentrations of human convalescent plasma or monoclonal antibodies were protected from weight loss and severe pneumonia caused by the virus.
  • The study emphasizes the need to test plasma donors for high levels of neutralizing antibodies, suggesting that administering these antibodies could serve as an alternative or complement to current COVID-19 treatments.
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Transmission of severe acute respiratory coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) between livestock and humans is a potential public health concern. We demonstrate the susceptibility of rabbits to SARS-CoV-2, which excrete infectious virus from the nose and throat upon experimental inoculation. Therefore, investigations on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in farmed rabbits should be considered.

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Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the leading cause of severe respiratory tract disease in infants. Most HRSV infections remain restricted to the upper respiratory tract (URT), but in a small percentage of patients the infection spreads to the lower respiratory tract, resulting in bronchiolitis or pneumonia. We have a limited understanding of HRSV pathogenesis and what factors determine disease severity, partly due to the widespread use of tissue-culture-adapted viruses.

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  • The recent discovery of SARS-CoV-2 as the virus causing COVID-19 prompted research comparing its effects to those of earlier coronaviruses like SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.
  • In experiments with cynomolgus macaques, SARS-CoV-2 was found in the respiratory tract without noticeable symptoms, but caused lung damage similar to COVID-19.
  • The findings indicate that SARS-CoV-2 can induce a disease comparable to COVID-19 in macaques and offer a valuable model for testing vaccines and treatments.
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Background: Influenza A virus (IAV) causes a wide range of extrarespiratory complications. However, the role of host factors in these complications of influenza virus infection remains to be defined.

Methods: Here, we sought to use transcriptional profiling, virology, histology, and echocardiograms to investigate the role of a high-fat diet in IAV-associated cardiac damage.

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Harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in the North Sea live in an environment heavily impacted by humans, the consequences of which are a concern for their health. Autopsies carried out on stranded harbour porpoises provide an opportunity to assess health problems in this species. We performed 61 autopsies on live-stranded harbour porpoises, which died following admission to a rehabilitation centre between 2003 and 2016.

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Pestiviruses typically infect members of the order Artiodactyla, including ruminants and pigs, although putative rat and bat pestiviruses have also been described. In the present study, we identified and characterized an evolutionary divergent pestivirus in the toothed whale species, harbour porpoise (). We tentatively named the virus Phocoena pestivirus (PhoPeV).

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Recently, the zoonotic capacity of the newly discovered variegated squirrel bornavirus 1 (VSBV-1) was confirmed in humans with a lethal encephalitis. Transmission to humans occurred by variegated and Prevost's squirrels as presumed reservoir hosts but possible ways of virus shedding and the route of infection still need to be elucidated. Thus, the tissue distribution of VSBV-1 antigen and RNA was investigated in detail via immunohistochemistry (IHC) in six variegated and eight Prevost's squirrels and by in situ hybridisation (ISH) in one Prevost's squirrel, respectively.

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The characteristics and risk factors of pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV-1) infection in humans are poorly known. We performed virological, pathological, and epidemiological analyses of a Dutch case, and compared the results with those of a US case. Both infections occurred in transplant patients under immunosuppressive therapy and caused fatal respiratory failure.

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Background: The 1918 Spanish H1N1 influenza pandemic was the most severe recorded influenza pandemic with an estimated 20-50 million deaths worldwide. Even though it is known that influenza viruses can cause extrarespiratory tract complications-which are often severe or even fatal-the potential contribution of extrarespiratory tissues to the pathogenesis of 1918 H1N1 virus infection has not been studied comprehensively.

Methods: Here, we performed a time-course study in ferrets inoculated intranasally with 1918 H1N1 influenza virus, with special emphasis on the involvement of extrarespiratory tissues.

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Although avian paramyxovirus type 1 is known to cause mild transient conjunctivitis in human beings, there are two recent reports of fatal respiratory disease in immunocompromised human patients infected with the pigeon lineage of the virus (PPMV-1). In order to evaluate the potential of PPMV-1 to cause respiratory tract disease, we inoculated a PPMV-1 isolate (hPPMV-1/Netherlands/579/2003) from an immunocompromised human patient into three healthy cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and examined them by clinical, virological, and pathological assays. In all three macaques, PPMV-1 replication was restricted to the respiratory tract and caused pulmonary consolidation affecting up to 30% of the lung surface.

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Identification of cellular receptors and characterization of viral tropism in animal models have vastly improved our understanding of morbillivirus pathogenesis. However, specific aspects of viral entry, dissemination and transmission remain difficult to recapitulate in animal models. Here, we used three virologically identical but phenotypically distinct recombinant (r) canine distemper viruses (CDV) expressing different fluorescent reporter proteins for in vivo competition and airborne transmission studies in ferrets (Mustela putorius furo).

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Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been shown to infect both humans and dromedary camels using dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) as its receptor. The distribution of DPP4 in the respiratory tract tissues of humans and camels reflects MERS-CoV tropism. Apart from dromedary camels, insectivorous bats are suggested as another natural reservoir for MERS-like-CoVs.

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Unlabelled: Due to antigenic drift of influenza viruses, seasonal influenza vaccines need to be updated annually. These vaccines are based on predictions of strains likely to circulate in the next season. However, vaccine efficacy is greatly reduced in the case of a mismatch between circulating and vaccine strains.

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