The influenza A virus (IAV) interacts with the glycocalyx of host cells through its surface proteins hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Quantitative biophysical measurements these interactions may help to understand at molecular level long-term aim predict infectivity answer other biological questions. We developed a method, called multivalent affinity profiling (MAP), measure binding p...

To evaluate the contribution of length diversity in the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) protein to the pathogenicity, replication and biological characteristics of Newcastle disease virus (NDV), we used reverse genetics to generate a series of recombinant NDVs containing truncated or extended HN proteins based on an infectious clone of genotype VII NDV (SG10 strain). The mean death times and i...

Among the influenza A viruses (IAVs) in wild aquatic birds, only H1, H2, and H3 subtypes have caused epidemics in humans. H1N1 viruses of avian origin have also caused 3 of 5 pandemics. To understand the reappearance of H1N1 in the context of pandemic emergence, we investigated whether avian H1N1 IAVs have contributed to the evolution of human, swine, and 2009 pandemic H1N1 IAVs. On the basis o...

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is highly immunogenic and able to stimulate both innate and adaptive immune responses. However, its ability to induce adverse effects has held back the use of VSV as a potential vaccine vector. In this study we developed VSV-ΔP, a safe yet potent replication-defective recombinant VSV in which the phosphoprotein (P) gene was deleted. VSV-ΔP replicated only in sup...

Newcastle disease (ND), caused by the virus (NDV), is transmitted poultry with severe infectivity and a high fatality rate. The fusion (F) protein on NDV envelope facilitates merger of viral host cell membranes help homologous hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN). transmembrane (TM) domains proteins are typically required for fusion, but key amino acids in F TM have not been identified. Site-direct...

Background and Aims: Influenza vaccine production process is time-consuming with little-to-no cross-protection which requires annual adjustment. The construction of a universal vaccine to deal with the pandemics and epidemics which occasionally threat human population is the aim of many researches worldwide. Today, influenza vaccines are mostly against two major antigenic proteins, hemagglutini...

Seven complementation-recombination groups of temperature-sensitive (ts) influenza WSN virus mutants have been previously isolated. Recently two of these groups (IV and VI) were shown to possess defects in the neuraminidase and the hemagglutinin gene, respectively, and two groups (I and III) were reported to have defects in the P3 and P1 proteins which are required for complementary RNA synthes...

Influenza A virus infects various animal species and transmits among different hosts, especially between humans and swine. Swine may serve as a mixing vessel to create new reassortants that could infect humans. Thus, monitoring and characterizing influenza viruses in swine are important in preventing interspecies transmission. We report the emergence and characterization of a novel H3N1 subtype...

The reason for the high incidence of vaccine-associated meningitis due to the Urabe AM9 vaccine was assessed by comparing the nucleotide (nt) sequence of the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) gene from vaccine virus to those of viruses isolated from persons with postvaccination meningitis. A G1081--> A nt substitution that was predicted to result in a Glu335--> Lys reversion in the HN protein wa...