Archives of virology. Supplementum 

About: Archives of virology. Supplementum is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Virus & Hepatitis C virus. It has an ISSN identifier of 0939-1983. Over the lifetime, 482 publications have been published receiving 11735 citations.

The changing epidemiology of astrovirus-associated gastroenteritis: a review

Abstract: Our understanding of the epidemiology of astrovirus-associated gastroenteritis has changed markedly with each improvement in detection method. In early surveys based on electronmicroscopy (EM), astroviruses appeared to be a rare cause of gastroenteritis, being found in fewer than 1 % of children with diarrhea, usually in small outbreaks of disease and primarily during the winter season. The development and use of monoclonal antibodies and enzyme immunoassays (EIA) to detect astroviruses led to reports of a higher prevalence (2.5%-9%) of astrovirus infection among patients hospitalized with diarrhea. Astroviruses appeared second only to rotaviruses as a cause of hospitalization for childhood viral gastroenteritis. Studies based on EIA detection of astroviruses indicate that astroviruses are common causes of diarrhea in children worldwide, and that most children are infected during their first two years of life. The elderly and the immunocompromised represent high-risk groups as well. The observations that newborns monitored prospectively rarely have repeat disease and that the rate of detection decreases with increasing age suggest that immunity to astroviruses, as immunity to rotaviruses, may develop early in life.

Pathogenesis of natural scrapie in sheep

Abstract: Although scrapie has been known for a long time as a natural disease of sheep and goats, the pathogenesis in its natural host still remains unclear. To study the pathogenesis of natural scrapie, we used immunohistochemistry to monitor the deposition of PrPSc in various tissues, collected during a natural scrapie infection from sheep with the PrPVRQ/PrPVRQ genotype which were purposely bred for their short incubation period for natural scrapie. PrPSc was present in the lymphoid tissues of all animals from the age of 5 months onwards. At this age, PrPSc was detected in the neural tissues only in the enteric nervous system (ENS) at the level of the duodenum and ileum. At the age of 10 months, PrPSc was not only found in the ENS but also in the ganglion mesentericum cranialis/coeliacum, the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus, and the in-termediolateral column of the thoracic segments T8–T10. PrPSc was detected for the first time in the nucleus tractus solitarius and ganglion nodosus at 17 months of age and in the ganglion trigeminale and several spinal ganglia at 21 months of age. Since the scrapie agent consists largely, if not entirely of PrPSc, these results indicate that the ENS acts as a portal of entry to the neural tissues for the scrapie agent followed by centripetal and retrograde spread through sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent fibers of the autonomic nervous system to the spinal cord and medulla oblongata respectively. PrPSc accumulation in sensory ganglia occurs after infection of the CNS and is therefore probably due to centrifugal and anterograde spread of the scrapie agent from the CNS through afferent nerve fibers.

Natural history of human rotavirus infection.

Abstract: Rotavirus infections occur repeatedly in humans from birth to old age. Most are asymptomatic or are associated with mild enteric symptoms. Infection in young children can be accompanied by severe life-threatening diarrhea, most commonly after primary infection. Annual childhood morbidity rates for severe diarrhea are similar worldwide. Mortality rates are low in developed countries but approach 1,000,000 annually in young children in developing countries.

Passive immunization of Ebola virus-infected cynomolgus monkeys with immunoglobulin from hyperimmune horses

Abstract: A commercially available immunoglobulin G (IgG) from horses, hyperimmunized to Ebola virus, was evaluated for its ability to protect cynomolgus monkeys against disease following i.m. inoculation with 1 000 PFU Ebola virus (Zaire '95 strain). Six monkeys were treated immediately after infection by i.m. infection of 6.0 ml IgG; these animals developed passive ELISA titers of 1:160 to 1:320 to Ebola, two days afer inoculation. However, the beneficial effects of IgG treatment were limited to a delay in onset of viremia and clinical signs, in comparison with untreated controls. The six IgG recipients had no detectable viremia day 5, in contrast with three virus infected controls whose viremias exceeded 7.0 log10 PFU/ml that day. The controls died on days 6, 6, and 7, while two IgG recipients died day 7 and the remaining 4 died day 8, all with high viremias. These results document that passively acquired antibody can have a beneficial effect in reducing the viral burden in Ebola-infected primates; however, effective treatment of human patients may require antibodies with higher specific activities and more favorable pharmacokinetic properties than the presently available equine IgG.

Serology of potyviruses: current problems and some solutions.

Abstract: The serological relationships among members of the family Potyviridae are extremely complex and inconsistent. Variable cross-reactivity of polyclonal antisera, unexpected paired relationships between distinct viruses, and lack of cross-reactions between some strains are the major problems associated with the serology of potyviruses. Recent biochemical and immunochemical investigations of coat proteins have established the molecular basis for potyvirus serology and provided explanations for most of the problems with serology of potyviruses. Information from these studies has also formed the basis for the development of several novel approaches to the accurate detection and identification of potyviruses. However, even these novel approaches are not without drawbacks and some of them cannot be applied easily in plant virus laboratories, since they require prior sequence information and facilities for peptide synthesis. These findings suggest that serology is an imperfect criterion for the identification and classification of potyviruses.