The substrate recognition properties of the polio-virus type 1 and coxsackievirus B3 3C proteinases have been examined in vitro by allelic and suballelic exchange of 3C between the cloned virus genomes. The activity of the altered 3C proteinases was examined by translation of synthetic RNA in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate/HeLa cell extract translation system. Analysis of the subsequent processin...

To date, there is no universally accepted therapy for viral myocarditis. We investigated the effect of the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor captopril on both early and late phases of coxsackievirus murine myocarditis. Mice were infected with coxsackievirus B3 and were divided into two main protocols. Mice in the early treatment protocol (n = 30) were treated on day 1 after infection with...

Coxsackievirus B3 infections of C57BL/6 mice, which express the MHC class II IA but not IE Ag, results in virus replication in the heart but minimal myocarditis. In contrast, Bl.Tg.Ealpha mice, which are C57BL/6 mice transgenically induced to express IE Ag, develop significant myocarditis upon Coxsackievirus B3 infection. Despite this difference in inflammatory damage, cardiac virus titers are ...

Tests for immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody to group B coxsackieviruses were performed on sera from 259 patients with a clinical diagnosis of pericarditis, myocarditis, or pleurodynia on whom there were no definitive serological or virus isolation findings to establish a viral etiology, and on 259 "control" patients with clinical diagnoses of viral or mycoplasmal pneumonia or pneumonitis. IgM ant...

While alcohol abuse and biliary disease can result in the development of pancreatitis, the factors that contribute to the idiopathic form of the disease are not well understood. I propose that coxsackievirus infections account for a subset of cases of pancreatitis of unknown etiology. Evidence to support this concept is derived from serological studies, case reports and animal models. In review...

Evidence has accumulated that antigen-specific T cells infiltrate the heart and play an important role in the pathogenesis of viral myocarditis. Costimulatory molecules such as B7s and CD40 expressed on antigen-presenting cells are known to play a critical role for antigen-specific T-cell activation to occur. To investigate the role for a costimulatory molecule, CD40, in the development of acut...

3C protease of Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) plays an essential role in the viral replication cycle, and therefore, emerged as an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of human diseases caused by CVB3 infection. In this study, we report the first account of the molecular impact of the T68A/N126Y double mutant (Mutant(Bound)) using an integrated computational approach. Molecular dynamics si...

Many viruses encode proteins whose major function is to evade or disable the host T cell response. Nevertheless, most viruses are readily detected by host T cells, and induce relatively strong T cell responses. Herein, we employ transgenic CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells as sensors to evaluate in vitro and in vivo antigen presentation by coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), and we show that this virus almost co...

The secondary structures predicted for the enteroviral 3' nontranslated region (3'NTR) all seem to indicate a conformation consisting of two (X and Y) hairpin structures. The higher-order RNA structure of the 3'NTR appears to exist as an intramolecular kissing interaction between the loops of these two hairpin structures. The enterovirus B-like subgroup possesses an additional stem-loop structu...

To determine if sewage workers have an increased risk of acquiring viral infections, 66 workers at a small wastewater plant in north-eastern Italy and 72 control subjects recruited from blood donors were enrolled in a seroprevalence study to determine whether sewage workers are at increased risk of acquiring viral infections. In order to evaluate various risk factors, a questionnaire was filled...