• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.50-53
• /
• 2017

An infection is less likely to elicit chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) than Guillain-$Barr{\acute{e}}$ syndrome. We here report a case of acute-onset CIDP following hepatitis A virus infection and briefly comment on the potential mechanisms regarding the induction and chronicity of autoimmunity after a viral infection.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.21-25
• /
• 2006

Iridovirus is an icosahedral cytoplasmic double-stranded DNA virus with a genome size of 170-200kb. Outbreaks of fish iridovirus infection are characterized by their wide geographic distribution and broad host spectrum, especially in water temperatures of $25-27^{\circ}C$ Recently, the causative agent of high mortalities in flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) was identified as fish iridovirus in Korea. Iridoviral infection repeatedly occurs in the same area for long periods, suggesting the possibility of viral infection in nursery. To examine this, the existence of iridovirus in juvenile flounders was detected by PCR using virus-specific primers. Antibodies induced against this virus were also examined using ELISA. As a result, juvenile fish in nursery were found to be previously infected with iridovirus, suggesting that proper prevention systems are required.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.295-304
• /
• 1994

This paper describes some preliminary attempts to formulate simple mathematical models of the transmission dynamics of HIV infection in homosexual communities. In conjunction with a survey of the available epidemiological data on HIV infection and the incidence of AIDS, the model is used to assess how various processes influence the course of the initial epidemic following the introduction of the virus. Models of the early stages of viral spread provide crude methods for estimating the basic reproductive rate of the virus, given a knowledge of the incubation period of AIDS and the initial doubling time of the epidemic. More complex models are formulated to assess the influence of heterogeneity in sexual activity. This latter factor is shown to have a major effect on the predicted pattern of the epidemic.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.221-227
• /
• 2013

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) cause viral infections that lead to chronic diseases. When they invade human body, virus specific T cells play an important role in antiviral effector functions including killing virus-infected cells and helping B cells to produce specific antibodies against viral proteins. The antiviral activity of T cells is usually affected by immune-regulatory factors that express on surface of T cells. Recently, many researchers have investigated the relationship between effector functions of virus specific T cells and characteristics of immune regulatory factors (e.g., CD28, CD25, CD45RO, FoxP3, PD-1, CTLA-4). In particular, Immune inhibitory molecules such as forkhead box P3 (FoxP3), programmed death-1 (PD-1), and cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) are associated with T-cell dysfunction. They are shown to be up-regulated in chronic viral diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C or human immunodeficiency virus infection. Therefore, the positive correlation between viral persistence and expression of immune regulatory factors (FoxP3, PD-1, and CTLA-4) has been suggested. In this review, the roles of immune regulatory factors FoxP3, PD-1, and CTLA-4 were discussed in chronic viral diseases such as HIV, HBV, or HCV.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.9-15
• /
• 2006

To prove whether error catastrophe /lethal mutagenesis is the primary antiviral mechanism of action of ribavirin against foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). Ribavirin passage experiments were performed and supernatants of $Rp_1$ to $Rp_5$ were harvested. Morphological alterations as well as the levels of viral RNAs, proteins, and infectious particles in the BHK-21 cells infected using the supernatants of $Rp_1$ to $Rp_5$ and control were measured by microscope, real-time RT-PCR, western-blotting and plaque assays, respectively. The mutation frequency was measured by sequencing the complete P1- and 3D-encoding region of FMDV after a single round of virus infection from ribavirin-treated or untreated FMDV-infected cells. Ribavirin treatment for FMDV caused dramatically inhibition of multiplication in cell cultures. The levels of viral RNAs, proteins, and infectious particles in the BHK-21 cells infected were more greatly reduced along with the passage from $Rp_1$ to $Rp_5$, moreover, nucleocapsid protein could not be detected and no recovery of infectious virus in the supernatant or detection of intracellular viral RNA was observed at the $Rp_5$-infected cells. A high mutation rate, giving rise to an 8-and 11-fold increase in mutagenesis and resulting in some amino acid substitutions, was found in viral RNA synthesized at a single round of virus infection in the presence of ribavirin of $1000\;{\mu}M$ and caused a 99.7% loss in viral infectivity in contrast with parallel untreated control virus. These results suggest that the antiviral molecular mechanism of ribavirin is based on the lethal mutagenesis/error catastrophe, that is, the ribavirin is not merely an antiviral reagent but also an effective mutagen.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.283-288
• /
• 2017

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is a notorious and ubiquitous virus in the swine industry. The susceptibility of the host to PCV2 infection is considered to be one factor associated with the dynamics of PCV2. The objective of this study was to verify the criteria for host susceptibility to PCV2, using blood parameters of post-weaned pigs naturally infected with the virus. The PCV2 DNA viral load, antibody titer, and leukopenia characteristics were measured in the serum extracted from the pigs at the 10th week. We classified the pigs into high (>5.0), intermediate (3.0 to 5.0), and low (<3.0) groups on the basis of the PCV2 viral load (log copies/ml), or as positive (${\leq}0.50$) and negative (>0.50) groups on the basis of antibody titer (sample-to-negative corrected ratio). Moreover, using these two categorized parameters, we suggested the criteria for classification into the susceptible and resistant groups. Statistical analyses revealed that pigs in the susceptible group had a significantly higher viral load (p<0.001) and negative antibody titer (p<0.001), as well as significantly lower leukocyte counts (p=0.018) and lower amounts of several leukocyte components (p<0.05), than pigs in the resistant group. We concluded that the susceptible group could be considered to have PCV2-induced leukopenia. Therefore, we suggest that the combined classifications of viral loads and anti-PCV2 antibodies can be used to determine PCV2-induced leukopenia in the subclinical PCV2 infection of post-weaned pig populations.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.110-116
• /
• 2000

Duck viral hepatitis is an acutic, highly infectious viral disease of young ducklings. The most practical means for controlling duck viral hepatitis is the vaccination of ducklings or of a breeding stock. We attempted to develop a vaccine strain of duck hepatitis virus (DHV) using a Korean isolate by serial chicken embryo passages. The propagation of DHV in chicken embryos was carried 140 passages. After the $50^{th}$ passage, of which the virus was non-pathogenic for ducklings, approximately every $20^{th}$ passage of the virus was tested for vaccinal efficacy. Both the $70^{th}$ and $90^{th}$ passage of the virus gave good protection against challenge infection to a DHV-DRL reference strain(type 1) and a virulent Korean isolate. The $110^{th}$, $125^{th}$ and $140^{th}$ passage of the virus were less protective than the $70^{th}$ and $90^{th}$ passage, which means that more than $110^{th}$ passage may lead to over-attenuation of the virus. Ducklings vaccinated with the chicken-embryo-adapted virus by oral, intramuscular or eye drop administration showed earlier resistance to challenge infection from 3 to 7 days postvaccination. Of the above methods, ducklings vaccinated intramuscularly presented the most rapid resistance against challenge. The minimum immune dose of the chicken-embryo-adapted virus in ducklings was also studied. Ducklings inoculated with a dose of $10^{2.0}\;ELD_{50}$ and below were not fully protected against challenge with a virulent DHV, showing a protection rate of 67% to 73%, but ducklings inoculated with a dose of $10^{3.0}\;ELD_{50}$ and over were completely protected. The virus yield of the chicken-embryo-adapted DHV was examined at 24hrs and 48hrs of the incubation time in the allantoic fluid, embryo head and embryo minus head of the embryonating egg. In all three components, the titer of the virus was higher at 48 hours than that at 24 hours after incubation. And the titer of the virus was higher in the embryo minus head, embryo head and the allantoic fluid, in order. Field trials for evaluating the efficacy of the attenuated DHV as a live vaccine were done in duck farms with about 25% mortality of flocks resulting from duck viral hepatitis. After the use of the experimental vaccine, the mortality due to duck viral hepatitis was dramatically reduced in the farms. These results indicated that the attenuated DHV using a Korean isolate could be a good candidate as a live vaccine strain of DHV in Korea.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.301-310
• /
• 2005

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease of mammals and has a great potential for causing severe economic loss in susceptible cloven-hoofed animals, such as cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and buffalo. FMDV, a member of the Aphthovirus genus in the Picornaviridae family, is a non-enveloped icosahedral virus that contains a positive sense RNA of about 8.2 kb in size. The genome carries one open reading frame consisting of 3 regions: capsid protein coding region P1, replication related protein coding region P2, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase coding region P3. FMDV infects pharynx epithelial cell in the respiratory tract and viral replication is active in lung epithelial cell. Morbidity is extremely high. A FMD outbreak in Korea in 2002 caused severe economic loss. Although intense research is undergoing to develop appropriate drugs to treat FMDV infection, there is no specific therapeutic for controlling FMDV infection. Moreover, there is an increasing demand for the development of vaccine strategies against FMDV infection in many countries. In this report, more effective prevention strategies against FMDV infection were reviewed.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.43 no.6
• /
• pp.537-545
• /
• 2005

Even though neutralizing antibodies against the Hantaan virus (HTNV) has been proven to be critical against viral infections, the cellular immune responses to HTNV are also assumed to be important for viral clearance. In this report, we have examined the cellular and humoral immune responses against the HTNV nucleocapsid protein (NP) elicited by virus infection or DNA vaccination. To examine the cellular immune response against HTNV NP, we used $H-2K^b$ restricted T-cell epitopes of NP. The NP-specific $CD8^+$ T cell response was analyzed using a $^{51}Cr-release$ assay, intracellular cytokine staining assay, enzyme-linked immunospot assay and tetramer binding assay in C57BL/6 mice infected with HTNV. Using these methods, we found that HTNV infection elicited a strong NP-specific $CD8^+$ T cell response at eight days after infection. We also found that several different methods to check the NP-specific $CD8^+$ T cell response showed a very high correlation among analysis. In the case of DNA vaccination by plasmid encoding nucleocapsid gene, the NP-specific antibody response was elicited $2\~4$ weeks after immunization and maximized at $6\~8$ weeks. NP-specific $CD8^+$ T cell response reached its peak 3 weeks after immunization. In a challenge test with the recombinant vaccinia virus expressing NP (rVV-HTNV-N), the rVV-HTNV-N titers in DNA vaccinated mice were decreased about 100-fold compared to the negative control mice.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.161-165
• /
• 1999

The antiviral activity of CAP30 from Chenopodium album, a type1 ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP), was examined against 5 different plant viral pathogens, and its activity against Tobacco mosaic virus was compared to those of well known antiviral proteins such as Pokeweed Antiviral protein from leaves and seeds. When the inoculating concentration of Tobacco mosaic virus was varied from 0.4 to $400{\mu}g/ml$, it was observed that CAP30 at the concentration of $1{\mu}g/ml$ suppressed the viral infection of C. amaranthicolor and C. quinoa almost completely up to $40{\mu}g/ml$ Tobacco mosaic virus. Results from the assays for the inhibitions of in vitro translation of rabbit reticulocyte lysate and the suppression of Tobacco mosaic virus infection ($10{\mu}g/ml$) to C. quinoa indicated that CAP30 is a strong inhibitor of protein synthesis and virus infection. The infection of several viruses other than Tobacco mosaic virus to host plants were also inhibited by $5{\mu}g/ml$ CAP30, suggesting that a gene encoding CAP30 can be used to develop transgenic virus-resistant plants.