BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genomic variability is a major challenge to the generation of a prophylactic vaccine. We have previously shown that HCV specific T-cell responses induced by a potent T-cell vaccine encoding a single strain subtype-1b immunogen target epitopes dominant in natural infection. However, corresponding viral regions are highly variable at a population level, with a r...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotyping is relevant for the delivery of effective antiviral therapy. HCV genotypes are geographically restricted with genotype 4, which is resistant to therapy, traditionally considered to be confined to the Middle East and Africa. We report here on the occurrence of HCV genotype 4 in Indian (South) patients. OBJECTIVES 1) To highlight the occurrence of H...

Dengue, a viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, is a serious global public health problem, infecting 50 to 100 million people each year in >100 countries and resulting in at least 20,000 deaths annually1,2. Dengue is caused by one of the four antigenically related dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1 to 4) belonging to the family Flaviviridae3. The viral genome is a single-stranded, positive...

DNA in human skeletal remains represents an important historical source of host genomic information and potentially of infecting viruses. However, little is known about viral persistence in bone. We searched ca. 70-year-old long bones of putative Finnish casualties from World War II for parvovirus B19 (B19V) DNA, and found a remarkable prevalence of 45%. The viral sequences were exclusively of ...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in Uganda is 10%. Hepatitis B virus genotypes impact on treatment response, rate of spontaneous recovery and progression of chronic HBV infection and hepatocellular carcinoma. There is little information on the HBV genotypic distribution in Uganda. OBJECTIVES To determine HBV genotypes in Uganda. METHODS The MBN clinical laborat...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) belongs to the recently defined Pneumoviridae family, Orthopneumovirus genus. It is the leading cause of acute bronchiolitis and one of the most common causes of infant viral death worldwide, with infection typically occurring as recurrent seasonal epidemics. There are two major RSV subtypes, A and B, and multiple genotypes, which can coexist during RSV epidemi...

The major challenges in diagnosing small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV) infection include early detection and genotyping of strains of epidemiological interest. A longitudinal study was carried out in Rasa Aragonesa sheep experimentally infected with viral strains of genotypes A or B from Spanish neurological and arthritic SRLV outbreaks, respectively. Sera were tested with two commercial ELISAs, t...

Sixty-one SARS coronavirus genomic sequences derived from the early, middle, and late phases of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic were analyzed together with two viral sequences from palm civets. Genotypes characteristic of each phase were discovered, and the earliest genotypes were similar to the animal SARS-like coronaviruses. Major deletions were observed in the Orf8 regi...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the interleukin (IL)28B locus have been associated with a sustained virological response (SVR) in interferon-ribavirin (IFN-RBV)-treated chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients in European and African populations. In this study, the genotype frequency of two IL28B SNPs (rs129679860 and rs8099917) in a cohort of chronic HCV-monoinfected patient...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Interleukin (IL)-28B gene, namely rs12979860, could predict response to pegylated interferon-α-ribavirin (PR) therapy in hepatitis C virus genotype 1 (HCV-1)-infected patients. A similar role was investigated in a case-control study conducted on 93 Egyptian patients chronically infected with HCV-4 in comparison to 22 individuals with spontaneous HCV...