The rhinovirus is the most common viral infectious agent in humans and is the predominant cause of the common cold. Rhinovirus infection proliferates in temperatures of 33–35 °C (91–95 °F), the temperatures found in the nose. Rhinoviruses belong to the genus Enterovirus in the family Picornaviridae.
Norovirus, sometimes referred to as the winter vomiting disease, is the most common cause of gastroenteritis. Infection is characterized by non-bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. Fever or headaches may also occur. Symptoms usually develop 12 to 48 hours after being exposed, and recovery typically occurs within one to three days. Complications are uncommon, but may include dehydration, especially in the young, the old, and those with other health problems.
A poliovirus, the causative agent of polio, is a serotype of the species Enterovirus C, in the family of Picornaviridae. There are three poliovirus serotypes: types 1, 2, and 3.
Picornaviruses are a group of related nonenveloped RNA viruses which infect vertebrates including fish, mammals, and birds. They are viruses that represent a large family of small, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses with a 30 nm icosahedral capsid. The viruses in this family can cause a range of diseases including the common cold, poliomyelitis, meningitis, hepatitis, and paralysis.
Measles morbillivirus(MeV), also called measles virus (MV), is a single-stranded, negative-sense, enveloped, non-segmented RNA virus of the genus Morbillivirus within the family Paramyxoviridae. It is the cause of measles. Humans are the natural hosts of the virus; no animal reservoirs are known to exist.
The Caliciviridae are a family of "small round structured" viruses, members of Class IV of the Baltimore scheme. Caliciviridae bear resemblance to enlarged picornavirus and was formerly a separate genus within the picornaviridae. They are positive-sense, single-stranded RNA which is not segmented. Thirteen species are placed in this family, divided among eleven genera. Diseases associated with this family include feline calicivirus, rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus, and Norwalk group of viruses (gastroenteritis). Caliciviruses naturally infect vertebrates, and have been found in a number of organisms such as humans, cattle, pigs, cats, chickens, reptiles, dolphins and amphibians. The caliciviruses have a simple construction and are not enveloped. The capsid appears hexagonal/spherical and has icosahedral symmetry with a diameter of 35–39 nm.
Viral pathogenesis is the study of the process and mechanisms by which viruses cause diseases in their target hosts, often at the cellular or molecular level. It is a specialized field of study in virology.
Adeno-associated viruses (AAV) are small viruses that infect humans and some other primate species. They belong to the genus Dependoparvovirus, which in turn belongs to the family Parvoviridae. They are small replication-defective, nonenveloped viruses and have linear single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) genome of approximately 4.8 kilobases (kb).
Feline calicivirus (FCV) is a virus of the family Caliciviridae that causes disease in cats. It is one of the two important viral causes of respiratory infection in cats, the other being Felid alphaherpesvirus 1. FCV can be isolated from about 50% of cats with upper respiratory infections. Cheetahs are the other species of the family Felidae known to become infected naturally.
Murine coronavirus (M-CoV) is a virus in the genus Betacoronavirus that infects mice. Belonging to the subgenus Embecovirus, murine coronavirus strains are enterotropic or polytropic. Enterotropic strains include mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) strains D, Y, RI, and DVIM, whereas polytropic strains, such as JHM and A59, primarily cause hepatitis, enteritis, and encephalitis. Murine coronavirus is an important pathogen in the laboratory mouse and the laboratory rat. It is the most studied coronavirus in animals other than humans, and has been used as an animal disease model for many virological and clinical studies.
Sapovirus is a genetically diverse genus of single-stranded positive-sense RNA, non-enveloped viruses within the family Caliciviridae. Together with norovirus, sapoviruses are the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in humans and animals. It is a monotypic taxon containing only one species, the Sapporo virus.
Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), sometimes less precisely called immune enhancement or disease enhancement, is a phenomenon in which binding of a virus to suboptimal antibodies enhances its entry into host cells, followed by its replication. The suboptimal antibodies can result from natural infection or from vaccination. ADE may cause enhanced respiratory disease, but is not limited to respiratory disease. It has been observed in HIV, RSV virus and Dengue virus and is monitored for in vaccine development.
Signal transducer and activator of transcription 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the STAT2 gene. It is a member of the STAT protein family. This protein is critical to the biological response of type I interferons (IFNs). STAT2 sequence identity between mouse and human is only 68%.
RIG-I is a cytosolic pattern recognition receptor (PRR) responsible for the type-1 interferon (IFN1) response. RIG-I is an essential molecule in the innate immune system for recognizing cells that have been infected with a virus. These viruses can include West Nile virus, Japanese Encephalitis virus, influenza A, Sendai virus, flavivirus, and coronaviruses. RIG-I is structurally considered a helical ATP-dependent DExD/H box RNA helicase, that recognizes short viral double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in the cytosol during a viral infection or other irregular RNAs. Once activated by the dsRNA, the N-terminus caspase activation and recruitment domains (CARDs) migrate and bind with CARDs attached to mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) to activate the signaling pathway for IFN1. IFN1s have three main functions: to limit the virus from spreading to nearby cells, promote an innate immune response, including inflammatory responses, and help activate the adaptive immune system. Other studies have shown that in different microenvironments, such as in cancerous cells, RIG-I has more functions other than viral recognition. RIG-I orthologs are found in mammals, geese, ducks, some fish, and some reptiles. RIG-I is in most cells, including various innate immune system cells, and is usually in an inactive state. Knockout mice that have been designed to have a deleted or non-functioning RIG-I gene are not healthy and typically die embryonically. If they survive, the mice have serious developmental dysfunction. The stimulator of interferon genes STING antagonizes RIG-1 by binding its N-terminus, probably as to avoid overactivation of RIG-1 signaling and the associated autoimmunity.
CMRF35-like molecule 1, also known as CD300lf, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CD300LF gene. CD300lf belongs to the protein family of CD300. CD300lf is a membrane glycoprotein that contains an immonoglobulin domain and is expressed by myeloid and mast cells of humans and other mammals. The protein functions in immunoregulation but might also have a role in norovirus infections.
Murine polyomavirus is an unenveloped double-stranded DNA virus of the polyomavirus family. The first member of the family discovered, it was originally identified by accident in the 1950s. A component of mouse leukemia extract capable of causing tumors, particularly in the parotid gland, in newborn mice was reported by Ludwik Gross in 1953 and identified as a virus by Sarah Stewart and Bernice Eddy at the National Cancer Institute, after whom it was once called "SE polyoma". Stewart and Eddy would go on to study related polyomaviruses such as SV40 that infect primates, including humans. These discoveries were widely reported at the time and formed the early stages of understanding of oncoviruses.
Major capsid protein VP1 is a viral protein that is the main component of the polyomavirus capsid. VP1 monomers are generally around 350 amino acids long and are capable of self-assembly into an icosahedral structure consisting of 360 VP1 molecules organized into 72 pentamers. VP1 molecules possess a surface binding site that interacts with sialic acids attached to glycans, including some gangliosides, on the surfaces of cells to initiate the process of viral infection. The VP1 protein, along with capsid components VP2 and VP3, is expressed from the "late region" of the circular viral genome.
Ebola viral protein 24 (eVP24) is considered a multifunctional secondary matrix protein present in viral particles. The broad roles eVP24 performs involve the formation of fully functional and infectious viral particles, promotion of filamentous nucleocapsid formation, mediation of host responses to infection, and suppression of the host innate immune system. It has been noted that eVP24 function can overlap with that of two other viral proteins; eVP40 matrix protein which functions in virus budding, and eVP35 which is also associated with immune suppression.
Herbert W. "Skip" Virgin was the Edward Mallinckrodt Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology & Immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is best known for establishing murine norovirus as a model system for studying norovirus biology, for identifying host phenotypes associated with persistent viral infections, for defining alterations to the human virome in the context of different diseases, and for elucidating the roles of autophagy and interferon-stimulated genes during viral infection.
Nicola Jane Stonehouse is a British virologist who is a professor in molecular virology at the University of Leeds. Her research investigates viral diseases and the use of RNA aptamers to study viral proteins. She has worked on the development of a novel poliovirus vaccine that makes use of virus-like particles.
