Smallpox vaccination carries a high risk of adverse events in recipients with a variety of contra-indications for live vaccines. Although alternative non-replicating vaccines have been described in the form of replication-deficient vaccine viruses, DNA vaccines, and subunit vaccines, these are less efficacious than replicating vaccines in animal models. DNA and subunit vaccines in particular ha...

The commercially available Orthopox BioThreat® Alert assay for orthopoxvirus (OPV) detection is piloted. This antibody-based lateral-flow assay labels and captures OPV viral agents to detect their presence. Serial dilutions of cultured Vaccinia virus (VACV) and Monkeypox virus (MPXV) were used to evaluate the sensitivity of the Tetracore assay by visual and quantitative determinations; specific...

In 1992, during an investigation into camelpox in two principal camel-rearing areas of Kenya, the disease was found in 1,100 camels at a prevalence of 6% in Turkana and 27% in Samburu. In Turkana, outbreaks were detected in two herds of young animals, while in Samburu, outbreaks were found in two herds of adult animals, as well as in two herds of young camels. In all cases, there was 100% morbi...

The search for effective therapies for orthopoxvirus infections has identified diverse classes of molecules with antiviral activity. Pyrimidine analogs, such as 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine (idoxuridine, IDU) were among the first compounds identified with antiviral activity against a number of orthopoxviruses and have been reported to be active both in vitro and in animal models of infection. More re...

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) declared global smallpox eradicated in 1980, concerns over emergent poxvirus infections have increased. Most poxvirus infections are zoonotic; exploring their genetic diversity will illuminate the genetic and evolutionary aspects of poxvirus infections, ecology, and epidemiology. In recent decades, several strains of the orthopoxvirus vaccinia virus ...

nated in death of the recruit 18 months after vaccination. In patients without underlying disease, cowpox infections manifest as self-healing diseases. However, in the absence of vaccination and among a population with increased numbers of immunocompromised persons, the risk for human poxvirus infections is increasing. Early diagnosis is essential for differentiating cowpox from illnesses and s...

Chemokines (chemotactic cytokines) comprise a large family of proteins that recruit and activate leukocytes, giving chemokines a major role in both immune response and inflammation-related diseases. The poxvirus-encoded viral CC chemokine inhibitor (vCCI) binds to many CC chemokines with high affinity, acting as a potent inhibitor of chemokine action. We have used heteronuclear multidimensional...

Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and type 1 interferon (T1-IFN) signaling are innate immune mechanisms activated upon viral infection. However, the role of NF-κB and its interplay with T1-IFN in antiviral immunity is poorly understood. We show that NF-κB is essential for resistance to ectromelia virus (ECTV), a mouse orthopoxvirus related to the virus causing human smallpox. Additionally, an ECTV...

A simple procedure has been developed to quickly retrieve and validate the DNA sequence encoding the RNA subunit of ribonuclease P (RNase P RNA) from microbial genomes. RNase P RNA sequences were identified from 94% of bacterial and archaeal complete genomes where previously no RNase P RNA was annotated. A sequence was found in camelpox virus, highly conserved in all orthopoxviruses (including ...