New Techniques in Viral Diagnosis and Therapy

A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Viruses".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2021) | Viewed by 14685

Special Issue Editor

Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padua, 35121 Padua, Italy
Interests: viral pathogenesis; gene therapy; medical virology; target discovery; antivirals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The emergence of new viruses from nature as well as the continuous challenge posed by old foes do require a tremendous effort for improvements in viral diagnosis and therapy. In both areas, great technological achievements have been realized thanks to the advancement of studies dedicated to viral genomics and viral structure and pathogenesis. This new knowledge has thus laid the ground to sharpen our experimental approach to the diagnosis and treatment of viral diseases. This Special Issue is devoted to the experience matured in different areas of virology, including environmental, veterinary, medical, and clinical virology, and aims to highlight how technological developments applied to virus biology can have a promising impact on daily life.

For this Special Issue, we are soliciting contributions on viral diagnosis and therapy, which may deal with model representative examples of viruses.

Prof. Dr. Giorgio Palù
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Omic technologies applied to viral diagnosis
  • biosensors and nanotechnologies
  • viral target identification and drug design
  • genetic and immune-based treatments

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 2363 KiB  
Article
Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Assay for Rapid and Accurate Confirmatory Diagnosis of HTLV-1/2 Infection
by Yago Gomes, Adele Caterino-de-Araujo, Karoline Campos, Maria Gisele Gonçalves, Ana Claudia Leite, Marco Antonio Lima, Abelardo Araújo, Marcus Tulius Silva and Otávio Espíndola
Viruses 2020, 12(9), 981; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/v12090981 - 04 Sep 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2531
Abstract
Laboratory diagnosis of human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLV) 1 and 2 infection is performed by serological screening and further confirmation with serological or molecular assays. Thus, we developed a loop-mediated isothermal nucleic acid amplification (LAMP) assay for the detection of HTLV-1/2 in blood samples. [...] Read more.
Laboratory diagnosis of human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLV) 1 and 2 infection is performed by serological screening and further confirmation with serological or molecular assays. Thus, we developed a loop-mediated isothermal nucleic acid amplification (LAMP) assay for the detection of HTLV-1/2 in blood samples. The sensitivity and accuracy of HTLV-1/2 LAMP were defined with DNA samples from individuals infected with HTLV-1 (n = 125), HTLV-2 (n = 19), and coinfected with HIV (n = 82), and compared with real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The overall accuracy of HTLV-1/2 LAMP (95% CI 74.8–85.5%) was slightly superior to qPCR (95% CI 69.5–81.1%) and similar to PCR-RFLP (95% CI 79.5–89.3%). The sensitivity of LAMP was greater for HTLV-1 (95% CI 83.2–93.4%) than for HTLV-2 (95% CI 43.2–70.8%). This was also observed in qPCR and PCR-RFLP, which was associated with the commonly lower HTLV-2 proviral load. All molecular assays tested showed better results with samples from HTLV-1/2 mono-infected individuals compared with HIV-coinfected patients, who present lower CD4 T-cell counts. In conclusion, HTLV-1/2 LAMP had similar to superior performance than PCR-based assays, and therefore may represent an attractive alternative for HTLV-1/2 diagnosis due to reduced working time and costs, and the simple infrastructure needed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Techniques in Viral Diagnosis and Therapy)
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Review

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18 pages, 363 KiB  
Review
Immunotherapy and Gene Therapy for Oncoviruses Infections: A Review
by Nathália Alves Araújo de Almeida, Camilla Rodrigues de Almeida Ribeiro, Jéssica Vasques Raposo and Vanessa Salete de Paula
Viruses 2021, 13(5), 822; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/v13050822 - 02 May 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2811
Abstract
Immunotherapy has been shown to be highly effective in some types of cancer caused by viruses. Gene therapy involves insertion or modification of a therapeutic gene, to correct for inappropriate gene products that cause/may cause diseases. Both these types of therapy have been [...] Read more.
Immunotherapy has been shown to be highly effective in some types of cancer caused by viruses. Gene therapy involves insertion or modification of a therapeutic gene, to correct for inappropriate gene products that cause/may cause diseases. Both these types of therapy have been used as alternative ways to avoid cancers caused by oncoviruses. In this review, we summarize recent studies on immunotherapy and gene therapy including the topics of oncolytic immunotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, gene replacement, antisense oligonucleotides, RNA interference, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-based gene editing, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and custom treatment for Epstein–Barr virus, human T-lymphotropic virus 1, hepatitis B virus, human papillomavirus, hepatitis C virus, herpesvirus associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma, Merkel cell polyomavirus, and cytomegalovirus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Techniques in Viral Diagnosis and Therapy)
15 pages, 1530 KiB  
Review
Viral Vectors for COVID-19 Vaccine Development
by Kenneth Lundstrom
Viruses 2021, 13(2), 317; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/v13020317 - 19 Feb 2021
Cited by 64 | Viewed by 8829
Abstract
Vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2 has been fierce due to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and has included all potential approaches for providing the global community with safe and efficient vaccine candidates in the shortest possible timeframe. Viral vectors have played a central role especially [...] Read more.
Vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2 has been fierce due to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and has included all potential approaches for providing the global community with safe and efficient vaccine candidates in the shortest possible timeframe. Viral vectors have played a central role especially using adenovirus-based vectors. Additionally, other viral vectors based on vaccinia viruses, measles viruses, rhabdoviruses, influenza viruses and lentiviruses have been subjected to vaccine development. Self-amplifying RNA virus vectors have been utilized for lipid nanoparticle-based delivery of RNA as COVID-19 vaccines. Several adenovirus-based vaccine candidates have elicited strong immune responses in immunized animals and protection against challenges in mice and primates has been achieved. Moreover, adenovirus-based vaccine candidates have been subjected to phase I to III clinical trials. Recently, the simian adenovirus-based ChAdOx1 vector expressing the SARS-CoV-2 S spike protein was approved for use in humans in the UK. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Techniques in Viral Diagnosis and Therapy)
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