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Temperton NJ, Hoschler K, Major D, Nicolson C, Manvell R, Hien VM, Ha DQ, de Jong M, Zambon M, Takeuchi Y, Weiss RA. A sensitive retroviral pseudotype assay for influenza H5N1-neutralizing antibodies. Influenza Other Respir Viruses 2007; 1:105-12. [PMID: 19453415 PMCID: PMC4941878 DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-2659.2007.00016.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 104] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended the development of simple, safe, sensitive and specific neutralization assays for avian influenza antibodies. We have used retroviral pseudotypes bearing influenza H5 hemagglutinin (HA) as safe, surrogate viruses for influenza neutralization assays which can be carried out at Biosafety Level 2. RESULTS Using our assay, sera from patients who had recovered from infection with influenza H5N1, and sera from animals experimentally immunized or infected with H5 tested positive for the presence of neutralizing antibodies to H5N1. Pseudotype neutralizing antibody titers were compared with titers obtained by hemagglutinin inhibition (HI) assays and microneutralization (MN) assays using live virus, and showed a high degree of correlation, sensitivity and specificity. CONCLUSIONS The pseudotype neutralization assay is as sensitive as horse erythrocyte HI and MN for the detection of antibodies to H5N1. It is safer, and can be applied in a high-throughput format for human and animal surveillance and for the evaluation of vaccines.
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Weiss RA, Fassati A, Murgia C. A sexually transmitted parasitic cancer. Retrovirology 2006. [PMCID: PMC1717007 DOI: 10.1186/1742-4690-3-s1-s92] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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78
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Ahuja SK, Aiuti F, Berkhout B, Biberfeld P, Burton DR, Colizzi V, Deeks SG, Desrosiers RC, Dierich MP, Doms RW, Emerman M, Gallo RC, Girard M, Greene WC, Hoxie JA, Hunter E, Klein G, Korber B, Kuritzkes DR, Lederman MM, Malim MH, Marx PA, McCune JM, McMichael A, Miller C, Miller V, Montagnier L, Montefiori DC, Moore JP, Nixon DF, Overbaugh J, Pauza CD, Richman DD, Saag MS, Sattentau Q, Schooley RT, Shattock R, Shaw GM, Stevenson M, Trkola A, Wainberg MA, Weiss RA, Wolinsky S, Zack JA. A Plea for Justice for Jailed Medical Workers. Science 2006; 314:924-5. [PMID: 17062652 DOI: 10.1126/science.1136578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
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79
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Abstract
When endogenous retroviruses (ERV) were discovered in the late 1960s, the Mendelian inheritance of retroviral genomes by their hosts was an entirely new concept. Indeed Howard M Temin's DNA provirus hypothesis enunciated in 1964 was not generally accepted, and reverse transcriptase was yet to be discovered. Nonetheless, the evidence that we accrued in the pre-molecular era has stood the test of time, and our hypothesis on ERV, which one reviewer described as 'impossible', proved to be correct. Here I recount some of the key observations in birds and mammals that led to the discovery of ERV, and comment on their evolution, cross-species dispersion, and what remains to be elucidated.
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80
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Murgia C, Pritchard JK, Kim SY, Fassati A, Weiss RA. Clonal origin and evolution of a transmissible cancer. Cell 2006; 126:477-87. [PMID: 16901782 PMCID: PMC2593932 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2006.05.051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 251] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2006] [Revised: 05/15/2006] [Accepted: 05/25/2006] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
The transmissible agent causing canine transmissible venereal tumor (CTVT) is thought to be the tumor cell itself. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed genetic markers including major histocompatibility (MHC) genes, microsatellites, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in naturally occurring tumors and matched blood samples. In each case, the tumor is genetically distinct from its host. Moreover, tumors collected from 40 dogs in 5 continents are derived from a single neoplastic clone that has diverged into two subclades. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that CTVT most likely originated from a wolf or an East Asian breed of dog between 200 and 2500 years ago. Although CTVT is highly aneuploid, it has a remarkably stable genotype. During progressive growth, CTVT downmodulates MHC antigen expression. Our findings have implications for understanding genome instability in cancer, natural transplantation of allografts, and the capacity of a somatic cell to evolve into a transmissible parasite.
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Abstract
The cross-species transmission of lentiviruses from African primates to humans has selected viral adaptations which have subsequently facilitated human-to-human transmission. HIV adapts not only by positive selection through mutation but also by recombination of segments of its genome in individuals who become multiply infected. Naturally infected nonhuman primates are relatively resistant to AIDS-like disease despite high plasma viral loads and sustained viral evolution. Further understanding of host resistance factors and the mechanisms of disease in natural primate hosts may provide insight into unexplored therapeutic avenues for the prevention of AIDS.
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82
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Munavalli GS, Weiss RA. Advances in techniques for endovenous ablation of truncal veins. SKIN THERAPY LETTER 2006; 11:4-7. [PMID: 16642251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
The latest techniques for endovenous occlusion, i.e., radiofrequency ablation catheters or endoluminal laser targeting water are our preferred methods for the treatment of saphenous-related varicose veins. Clinical experience with endovenous techniques in more than 1,000 patients shows a high degree of success with minimal side effects, most of which can be prevented or minimized with use of tumescent anesthesia. Within the next 5 years, these minimally invasive endovenous ablative procedures involving saphenous trunks should have virtually replaced open surgical strippings.
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Abstract
Five years into the human postgenomic era, we are gaining considerable knowledge about host-pathogen interactions through host genomes. This “infectogenomics” approach should yield further insights into both diagnostic and therapeutic advances, as well as normal cellular function.
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Abstract
This year marks the centenary of Robert Koch's Nobel Prize for discovering the cause of tuberculosis. Koch was also the first scientist to isolate the anthrax and cholera microbes. Yet perhaps one of his greatest contributions to biology is the least appreciated: his method for propagating individual colonies of bacteria on plates, a technique that came to be called cloning.
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Neil SJD, Aasa-Chapman MMI, Clapham PR, Nibbs RJ, McKnight A, Weiss RA. The promiscuous CC chemokine receptor D6 is a functional coreceptor for primary isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV-2 on astrocytes. J Virol 2005; 79:9618-24. [PMID: 16014924 PMCID: PMC1181543 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.79.15.9618-9624.2005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
The role of coreceptors other than CCR5 and CXCR4 in the pathogenesis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease is controversial. Here we show that a promiscuous CC chemokine receptor, D6, can function as a coreceptor for various primary dual-tropic isolates of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV-2. Furthermore, D6 usage is common among chimeric HIV-1 constructs bearing the gp120 proteins of isolates from early seroconverting patients. D6 mRNA and immunoreactivity were demonstrated to be expressed in HIV-1 target cells such as macrophages, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and primary astrocytes. In primary astrocytes, an RNA interference-mediated knockdown of D6 expression inhibited D6-tropic isolate infection. D6 usage may account for some previous observations of alternative receptor tropism for primary human cells. Thus, D6 may be an important receptor for HIV pathogenesis in the brain and for the early dissemination of virus in the host.
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86
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Temperton NJ, Chan PK, Simmons G, Zambon MC, Tedder RS, Takeuchi Y, Weiss RA. Longitudinally profiling neutralizing antibody response to SARS coronavirus with pseudotypes. Emerg Infect Dis 2005; 11:411-6. [PMID: 15757556 PMCID: PMC3298259 DOI: 10.3201/eid1103.040906] [Citation(s) in RCA: 134] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) spike protein (S) is a major target for neutralizing antibodies. Retroviral SARS-CoV S pseudotypes have been constructed and used to develop an in vitro microneutralization assay that is both sensitive and specific for SARS-CoV neutralizing antibodies. Neutralization titers measured by this assay are highly correlated to those measured by an assay using replication-competent SARS-CoV. No cross-neutralization occurred with human sera known to contain antibodies to coronavirus strains OC43 and 229E. The pseudotype assay was used to profile neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV S in sequential serum samples taken from 41 confirmed SARS patients during the 2003 outbreak in Hong Kong and shows long-lasting immunity in most recovered patients. The pseudotype assay does not require handling live SARS virus; it is a useful tool to determine neutralizing titers during natural infection and the preclinical evaluation of candidate vaccines.
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Neil SJD, McKnight A, Gustafsson K, Weiss RA. HIV-1 incorporates ABO histo-blood group antigens that sensitize virions to complement-mediated inactivation. Blood 2005; 105:4693-9. [PMID: 15728127 DOI: 10.1182/blood-2004-11-4267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
ABO histo-blood group antigens have been postulated to modify pathogen spread through the action of natural antibodies and complement. The antigens are generated by a polymorphic glycosyl-transferase encoded by 2 dominant active and a recessive inactive allele. In this study we investigated whether ABO sugars are incorporated into the envelope of HIV-1 virions. HIV vectors derived from cells expressing ABO antigens displayed sensitivity to fresh human serum analogous to ABO incompatibility, and ABO histo-blood group sugars were detected on the viral envelope protein, glycoprotein 120 (gp120). Moreover, lymphocyte-derived virus also displayed serum sensitivity, reflecting the ABO phenotype of the host when cultured in autologous serum due to adsorption of antigens to cell surfaces. Serum sensitivity required both active complement and specific anti-ABO antibodies. Thus, incorporation of ABO antigens by HIV-1 may affect transmission of virus between individuals of discordant blood groups by interaction with host natural antibody and complement.
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89
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Abstract
Fifty years ago, the age-old scourge of infectious disease was receding in the developed world in response to improved public health measures, while the advent of antibiotics, better vaccines, insecticides and improved surveillance held the promise of eradicating residual problems. By the late twentieth century, however, an increase in the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases was evident in many parts of the world. This upturn looms as the fourth major transition in human-microbe relationships since the advent of agriculture around 10,000 years ago. About 30 new diseases have been identified, including Legionnaires' disease, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), hepatitis C, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)/variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), Nipah virus, several viral hemorrhagic fevers and, most recently, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza. The emergence of these diseases, and resurgence of old ones like tuberculosis and cholera, reflects various changes in human ecology: rural-to-urban migration resulting in high-density peri-urban slums; increasing long-distance mobility and trade; the social disruption of war and conflict; changes in personal behavior; and, increasingly, human-induced global changes, including widespread forest clearance and climate change. Political ignorance, denial and obduracy (as with HIV/AIDS) further compound the risks. The use and misuse of medical technology also pose risks, such as drug-resistant microbes and contaminated equipment or biological medicines. A better understanding of the evolving social dynamics of emerging infectious diseases ought to help us to anticipate and hopefully ameliorate current and future risks.
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Abstract
With outbreaks of infectious disease emerging from animal sources, we have learnt to expect the unexpected. We were, and are, expecting a new influenza A pandemic, but no one predicted the emergence of an unknown coronavirus (CoV) as a deadly human pathogen. Thanks to the preparedness of the international network of influenza researchers and laboratories, the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was rapidly identified, but there is no complacency over the global or local management of the epidemic in terms of public health logistics. The human population was lucky that only a small proportion of infected persons proved to be highly infectious to others, and that they did not become so before they felt ill. These were the features that helped to make the outbreak containable. The next outbreak of another kind of transmissible disease may well be quite different.
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Weiss RA. Circe, Cassandra, and the trojan pigs: xenotransplantation. PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 2004; 148:281-295. [PMID: 15551501] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
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93
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Bhattacharya B, Weiss RA, Davis C, Holmes H, Hockley D, Fassati A. Detection and quantitation of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 particles by confocal microscopy. J Virol Methods 2004; 120:13-21. [PMID: 15234805 DOI: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2004.03.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2004] [Accepted: 03/23/2004] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
A method is described to visualise directly human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) particles. HIV-1 containing samples were adsorbed onto a plastic surface and doubly labeled with antibodies specific for viral proteins and sensitive nucleic acids dyes. Laser scanning confocal microscopy detected co-localization of viral proteins and nucleic acids, thus allowing specific identification of HIV. Using this technique, we have quantified eight different HIV-1 sub-types and three HIV-1 groups in tissue culture supernatants from infected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Confocal counts correlated well with electron microscopy (EM) counts and HIV-1 RNA loads as determined by quantitative PCR. Confocal microscopy may prove to be a simple alternative to electron microscopy for virus identification and quantitation.
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McLean AR, May RM, Pattison J, Weiss RA. Introduction. Emerging infections: what have we learnt from SARS? Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2004; 359:1047-8. [PMID: 15306388 PMCID: PMC1693397 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2004.1488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In the summer of 2003, as the first global severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic stuttered to a close, The Royal Society set about organizing a meeting that would take stock of the year's events and ask ‘what can we learn from SARS about emerging infections in general?’ Emerging infections are more than just a current biological fashion. The bitter ongoing experience of AIDS and the looming threat of an influenza pandemic teach us that the control of infectious disease is a problem we have not yet solved. It is a problem that needs to be addressed by a broad community. Scientists, policy makers and health care workers all need to be prepared, but prepared to do what? The purpose of the meeting was to use SARS as an example to enumerate the generic issues that must be considered when planning for the control of emerging infections.
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Weiss RA. Cancer, infection and immunity: a personal homage to Jan Svoboda. Folia Biol (Praha) 2004; 50:78-86. [PMID: 15373340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/30/2023]
Abstract
Jan Svoboda has had an extraordinary influence on my research. Following our first meeting in 1967, he encouraged me to pursue my tentative evidence for the existence of endogenous retroviruses latent in normal cells. He introduced me to the Czech scientists, Pavel Veselý and Jan Závada, with whom I collaborated fruitfully on the transformed cell phenotype and on virus pseudotypes, respectively. Through my brief training in his laboratory in Prague I gained a breadth and depth of analysis in virology, immunology and oncology that helped me subsequently to tackle problems in AIDS and AIDS-associated malignancy at the levels of both cell biology and epidemiology.
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Abstract
Animals have always been a major source of human infectious disease. Some infections like rabies are recognized as primary zoonoses caused in each case by direct animal-to-human transmission, whereas others like measles become independently sustained within the human population so that the causative virus has diverged from its morbillivirus progenitor in ruminants. Recent examples of direct zoonoses are variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease arising from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in Hong Kong. Recent epidemic diseases of animal origin are the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome pandemic caused by human immunodeficiency virus. Some retroviruses move into and out of the chromosomal DNA of the host germline, so that they may oscillate between being an avirulent inherited Mendelian trait in one species and an infectious pathogen in another. Cross-species viral and other infections are reviewed historically with respect to the evolution of virulence and the concern about iatrogenic enhancement of cross-species transfer by medical procedures akin to xenotransplantation.
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Jenner RG, Maillard K, Cattini N, Weiss RA, Boshoff C, Wooster R, Kellam P. Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus-infected primary effusion lymphoma has a plasma cell gene expression profile. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2003; 100:10399-404. [PMID: 12925741 PMCID: PMC193573 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1630810100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 164] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus is associated with three human tumors: Kaposi's sarcoma, and the B cell lymphomas, plasmablastic lymphoma associated with multicentric Castleman's disease, and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). Epstein-Barr virus, the closest human relative of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, mimics host B cell signaling pathways to direct B cell development toward a memory B cell phenotype. Epstein-Barr virus-associated B cell tumors are presumed to arise as a consequence of this virus-mediated B cell activation. The stage of B cell development represented by PEL, how this stage relates to tumor pathology, and how this information may be used to treat the disease are largely unknown. In this study we used gene expression profiling to order a range of B cell tumors by stage of development. PEL gene expression closely resembles that of malignant plasma cells, including the low expression of mature B cell genes. The unfolded protein response is partially activated in PEL, but is fully activated in plasma cell tumors, linking endoplasmic reticulum stress to plasma cell development through XBP-1. PEL cells can be defined by the overexpression of genes involved in inflammation, cell adhesion, and invasion, which may be responsible for their presentation in body cavities. Similar to malignant plasma cells, all PEL samples tested express the vitamin D receptor and are sensitive to the vitamin D analogue drug EB 1089 (Seocalcitol).
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Weiss RA. Celebrating novel cancer drugs. Br J Cancer 2003; 89:425. [PMID: 12888806 PMCID: PMC2394382 DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6601229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
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Weiss RA. The oncologists' and radiologists' PET. Br J Cancer 2003; 89:223. [PMID: 12865904 PMCID: PMC2394265 DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6601190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
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