Assigning functional information to hypothetical proteins in virus genomes is crucial for gaining insight into their proteomes. Human adenoviruses are medium sized viruses that cause a range of diseases. Their genomes possess proteins with uncharacterized function known as hypothetical proteins. Using a wide range of protein function prediction servers, functional information was obtained about...

BACKGROUND Ophthalmic pterygium is a common benign lesion of unknown origin and the pathogenesis might be vision-threatening. This problem is often associated with exposure to solar light. Recent evidence suggests that potentially oncogenic viruses such as human papillomavirus and Epstein-Barr virus may be involved in the pathogenesis of pterygia. Expression of specific adenovirus genes such as...

BACKGROUND The use of oncolytic adenoviruses as cancer gene therapy is limited by their uneven penetration and distribution in tumors. We investigated whether the expression of the cell matrix-degradative protein relaxin by adenovirus could improve adenovirus distribution and penetration in tumors. METHODS We generated relaxin-expressing, replication-incompetent (dl-lacZ-RLX) and -competent (...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Replication deficient recombinant adenoviruses represent an efficient means of transferring genes in vivo into a wide variety of dividing and quiescent cells from many different organs. Although the gastrointestinal tract is a potentially attractive target for gene therapy approaches, only a few studies on the use of viral gene transfer vehicles in the gut have been reported. Th...

Background/Aims—Replication deficient recombinant adenoviruses represent an eYcient means of transferring genes in vivo into a wide variety of dividing and quiescent cells from many diVerent organs. Although the gastrointestinal tract is a potentially attractive target for gene therapy approaches, only a few studies on the use of viral gene transfer vehicles in the gut have been reported. The p...

Oncolytic adenoviruses, such as Delta-24-RGD, are promising therapies for patients with brain tumor. Clinical trials have shown that the potency of these cancer-selective adenoviruses should be increased to optimize therapeutic efficacy. One potential strategy is to increase the efficiency of adenovirus-induced cell lysis, a mechanism that has not been clearly described. In this study, for the ...

In this study, we determined and genetically characterized three fowl adenoviruses isolated from chickens with inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) and hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) in China and assessed their pathogenicity. The full genome of HBQ12, BJH13 and JSJ13 was found to be 44,081, 43,966 and 43,756 nucleotides long, respectively. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed that s...

Human viral contamination in drinking and recreational waters poses health risks. The application of PCR-based molecular technology has advanced our knowledge of the occurrence and prevalence of human viruses in water; however, it has provided no information on viral viability and infectivity. Four human cell lines were compared for their sensitivity to different serotypes of human adenoviruses...