Life-threatening RNA viruses emerge regularly, and often in an unpredictable manner. Yet, the very few drugs available against known RNA viruses have sometimes required decades of research for development. Can we generate preparedness for outbreaks of the, as yet, unknown viruses? The VIZIER (VIral enZymes InvolvEd in Replication) (http://www.vizier-europe.org/) project has been set-up to develop the scientific foundations for countering this challenge to society. VIZIER studies the most conserved viral enzymes (that of the replication machinery, or replicases) that constitute attractive targets for drug-design. The aim of VIZIER is to determine as many replicase crystal structures as possible from a carefully selected list of viruses in order to comprehensively cover the diversity of the RNA virus universe, and generate critical knowledge that could be efficiently utilized to jump-start research on any emerging RNA virus. VIZIER is a multidisciplinary project involving (i) bioinformatics to define functional domains, (ii) viral genomics to increase the number of characterized viral genomes and prepare defined targets, (iii) proteomics to express, purify, and characterize targets, (iv) structural biology to solve their crystal structures, and (v) pre-lead discovery to propose active scaffolds of antiviral molecules.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2007.10.013 | DOI Listing |
Vet Res Commun
January 2025
College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Tianjin Agricultural University, No.22, Jinjing Road, Xiqing District, Tianjin, 300384, China.
Recent outbreaks of PRRSV in live attenuated vaccine-immunized pig farms in Tianjin, China have raised questions about the etiological characteristics and pathogenicity of the PRRSV variant, which remains unknown. In this study, a multiple lineages recombinant PRRSV strain named TJ-C6, was isolated and identified. Phylogenetic trees and genome homology analyses revealed that TJ-C6 belonged to lineage 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Struct Funct
January 2025
Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi Province, China.
A significant proportion of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 suffer from persistent symptoms, referred to as "post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC)". Abnormal brain intrinsic activity has been observed in PASC patients, but the patterns of frequency-dependent intrinsic activity in the PASC and non-PASC (recovered COVID-19 patients without persistent symptoms) groups and their association with neuropsychiatric sequelae remain unclear in PASC. Twenty-nine PASC patients, 27 non-PASC subjects, and 31 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Virol
February 2025
Department of Microbiology, School of Basic Medicine, Air Force Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
Virus budding is a critical step in the replication cycle of enveloped viruses, closely linked to viral spread, disease progression, and clinical outcomes. The budding of many enveloped RNA viruses is facilitated by the hijacking of the host endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) proteins through viral late domains. These late domains are essential for progeny virus production and are highly conserved, making the interaction between late domains and host ESCRT proteins a potential target for the development of antiviral therapeutics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Virol
February 2025
Department of Chemistry, Assam University, Silchar, India.
The biological applications of noncationic porphyrin-fullerene (P-F) dyads as anti-HIV agents have been limited despite the established use of several cationic P-F dyads as anti-cancer photodynamic therapy (PDT) agents. This article explores the potential of amphiphilic non-cationic porphyrin-fullerene dyads as HIV-1 inhibitors under both PDT (light-treated) and non-PDT (dark) conditions. The amphiphilic P-F dyads, PBC and PBC, demonstrated enhanced efficacy in inhibiting the entry and production of HIV-1 (subtypes B and C).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cell Biol
April 2025
Team R2D2: Retroviral RNA Dynamics and Delivery, IRIM, UMR9004, CNRS, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
Retroviruses carry a genomic intron-containing RNA with a long structured 5'-untranslated region, which acts either as a genome encapsidated in the viral progeny or as an mRNA encoding the key structural protein, Gag. We developed a single-molecule microscopy approach to simultaneously visualize the viral mRNA and the nascent Gag protein during translation directly in the cell. We found that a minority of the RNA molecules serve as mRNA and that they are translated in a fast and efficient process.
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