Latest Articles on Zika Virus
- Immunization with different recombinant West Nile virus envelope proteins induces varying levels of serological cross-reactivity and protection from infection Thu, 30 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
INTRODUCTION: West Nile Virus (WNV) is a zoonotic flavivirus transmitted by mosquitoes. Especially in the elderly or in immunocompromised individuals an infection with WNV can lead to severe neurological symptoms. To date, no human vaccine against WNV is available. The Envelope (E) protein, located at the surface of flaviviruses, is involved in the invasion into host cells and is the major target for neutralizing antibodies and therefore central to vaccine development. Due to their close genetic... - Universal Difference-in-Differences for Causal Inference in Epidemiology Thu, 30 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Difference-in-differences is undoubtedly one of the most widely used methods for evaluating the causal effect of an intervention in observational (i.e., nonrandomized) settings. The approach is typically used when pre- and postexposure outcome measurements are available, and one can reasonably assume that the association of the unobserved confounder with the outcome has the same absolute magnitude in the two exposure arms and is constant over time; a so-called parallel trends assumption. The... - Molecular epidemiology, clinical analysis, and genetic characterization of Zika virus infections in Thailand (2020-2023) Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
To investigate the clinical and molecular characteristics and evolution of the Zika virus (ZIKV) in Thailand from March 2020 to March 2023. In all, 751 serum samples from hospitalized patients in Bangkok and the surrounding areas were screened for ZIKV using real-time RT-PCR. Demographic data and clinical variables were evaluated. Phylogenetic and molecular clock analysis determined the genetic relationships among the ZIKV strains, emergence timing, and their molecular characteristics. Among the... - Brain methylome remodeling selectively regulates neuronal activity genes linking to emotional behaviors in mice exposed to maternal immune activation Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
How early life experience is translated into storable epigenetic information leading to behavioral changes remains poorly understood. Here we found that Zika virus (ZIKV) induced-maternal immune activation (MIA) imparts offspring with anxiety- and depression-like behavior. By integrating bulk and single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) with genome-wide 5hmC (5-hydroxymethylcytosine) profiling and 5mC (5-methylcytosine) profiling in prefrontal cortex (PFC) of ZIKV-affected male offspring mice,... - Thinking out of the box: revisiting health surveillance based on medical records Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Despite the considerable advances in the last years, the health information systems for health surveillance still need to overcome some critical issues so that epidemic detection can be performed in real time. For instance, despite the efforts of the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MoH) to make COVID-19 data available during the pandemic, delays due to data entry and data availability posed an additional threat to disease monitoring. Here, we propose a complementary approach by using electronic... - Superior efficacy of a skin-applied microprojection device for delivering a novel Zika DNA vaccine Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Zika virus (ZIKV) infections are spreading silently with limited global surveillance in at least 89 countries and territories. There is a pressing need to develop an effective vaccine suitable for equitable distribution globally. Consequently, we previously developed a proprietary DNA vaccine encoding secreted non-structural protein 1 of ZIKV (pVAX-tpaNS1) to elicit rapid protection in a T cell-dependent manner in mice. In the current study, we evaluated the stability, efficacy, and... - The Wood equation allows consistent fitting of individual antibody-response profiles of Zika virus or SARS-CoV-2 infected patients Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Antibody kinetic curves obtained during a viral infection are often fitted using aggregated patient data, hiding the heterogeneity of individual humoral immune responses. Individual antibody responses can be modeled using the Wood equation and grouped according to their profile. Such modeling takes into account several important kinetic parameters, such as the day when antibody detection becomes positive [daypos], the day of the maximal response [daymax], the maximum antibody level [levelmax],... - A Review of Pathogens Transmitted by the Container-Inhabiting Mosquitoes, Aedes Albopictus, A Global Public Health Threat Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Dengue virus (DENV), Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and Zika virus (ZIKV) are highly pathogenic human arboviruses transmitted by the Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) or Ae. Albopictus mosquito. These arboviruses are responsible for causing fever, hemorrhagic conditions, and neurological diseases in humans post-bite from an infected Aedes mosquito. Over the past 80 years, the Ae. albopictus has infested every habitable continent, bar Antarctica, thereby escalating the... - Data from Entomological Collections of Aedes (Diptera: Culicidae) in a post-epidemic area of Chikungunya, City of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Arbovirus epidemics (chikungunya, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever and zika) are a growing threat in African areas where Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1895) are present. The lack of comprehensive sampling of these two vectors limits our understanding of their propagation dynamics in areas at risk of arboviruses. Here, we collected 6,943 observations (both larval and human capture) of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus between 2020 and 2022. The study... - Editorial: Preclinical macaque models of viral diseases Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:00:00 -0500
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