virology
sa smith | August 15, 2011
My response:
Patient: Are you sure youre a doctor?
Me: Oh, Im not a doctor.
If you are a regular reader of ERV, one of the Big Ideas I hope you take away from this blog is 'Viruses are not Bad Guys' (more, more, this list isnt exhaustive, Ive written about this a million times).
Yes, we tend to notice them when they make us sick. But the fact of the matter is, they are super little creatures who have been evolving on this planet for millions and millions and millions of years, and have figured out how to do fantastic things that we can take advantage of for research and treatment purposes.…
sa smith | August 9, 2011It gets lonely here in virus town.
Its like me... and Vincent... and... me...
So Im always happy to stumble across another virology blag, especially ones written by fellow grad students!
Rule of 6ix
:uncovering the science behind viruses, vaccines and what it means for us
Bamford doesnt post super often, but check out the side bar in his archive to get caught up on some cool topics that I have *not* covered in that kind of depth before here on ERV (and sometimes havent covered at all!).
And actually, while we are talking about it-- If you know of some other virus blogs out there, leave a…
sa smith | July 11, 2011*heavy-sigh*
HIV Research World is infecting other fields:
A Highly Conserved Neutralizing Epitope on Group 2 Influenza A Viruses
Media coverage of referenced paper:
Discovery of Natural Antibody Brings a Universal Flu Vaccine a Step Closer
No, it doesnt. Unless if by 'universal flu vaccine' you actually mean 'gene therapy for everyone instead of flu shots'.
Look, heres what happens-- Scientists sift through thousands and thousands and thousands of B-cells, the cells that make antibodies, and ID ones that make antibodies that are really good at neutralizing lots of different kinds of…
sa smith | June 30, 2011[fear mongering post for the year. I really hate ticks, and I cant believe no one has told me about this virus before]
I love making exclamations like that.
First time I had Indian food: WHY ARE WE NOT EATING THIS ALL THE TIME??
When I learned hand-to-hand combat: WHY ARE WE NOT TEACHING THIS TO EVERY FEMALE??
When I learned about Powassan virus (like, yesterday): WHY HAVENT I LEARNED ABOUT THIS BEFORE??
Powassan virus is rare, but TERRIFYING, and its becoming less rare.
AHHH!
Heres the deal-- you all have heard of flaviviruses before. West Nile, Dengue, Yellow Fever, etc. All these guys…
sa smith | June 14, 2011All the neighborhood kids love mah puppeh, Arnie.
They are out playing in the playground, see me and Arnie coming, and they come running over to give Arnie lovies and to get Arnie kissies.
And, seeing as my parents and most of my aunts and uncles are teachers, I make sure to use this opportunity to teach the kids something: "While its okay to run over to give Arnie lovies, they should always ask an owner whether it is okay to pet their puppy and to never, ever, EVER approach an animal when their owner is not around."
I need to add "If you see a sick birdy or kitten or puppy, tell your parents…
sa smith | June 8, 2011To quote me from 2009:
Since ~2006, honey bee colonies in the US have been dropping dead overnight. Literally. They call it 'colony collapse disorder'. While large populations of organisms dying is disturbing, no matter the species, we need honey bees-- they help pollinate so many of our crops. I grew up in the banks of the Missouri River, around apple and peach orchards (who always had their own bee hives, and honey) and hell, I eat everything on that list...
What is killing our bees?
People have accused GMOs and wireless internet and pesticides and antibiotics... We didnt have a clue before…
sa smith | May 26, 2011I LOVE talking about PERVs on ERV.
PERVs.
PERVs.
EVEN MOAR PERVs.
I LOVE PERVs!
Well... PERVs as in Piggie Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses. Not pervs as in Catholic Priests and Teh Popes advisers. Thats a different story.
Because the need for organs for transplants is so high, and because pigs are pretty great sources for transplants in humans, and because of recent successes with minimal PERV-pigs down-under, a lot of research has gone into PERVs to really try to nail down just how big of a threat they are to humans.
The problem is, PERVs can 'infect' human cells. But as some of you who…
sa smith | May 25, 2011This post isnt going to be as funny or as ripe for Pope jokes as some of you might be hoping. Sry.
Herpes in horses EHV, has a lot of similarities to the 'herpes' us humans are used to-- HSV-1 and 2, EBV, CMV, chicken pox, etc. Its similar in that, I mean, its herpes. Large, DNA virus. Once it sets up shop in someone, its going to be there for life. And, usually most horses are infected with EHV variants while they are still very young, from Mom. Like EBV and CMV and Co, its pretty ubiquitous. Horses/Colts get sick (like how you feel when you get the flu) and get better, no big whoop…
sa smith | May 16, 2011Tuesday, May 17th, at noon (Central Time), Trine Tsouderos is hosting a live-chat with one of the people who literally wrote the book on viruses, Vincent Racaniello.
LINKY!!
I know you all have *ME* to chat with :P But I do encourage you all to submit questions to Vince and Trine, partly because this is a really neat opportunity, and really my expertise is retroviruses, while Vinces is more broad, but mostly because I dont want them to get flooded with more idiotic 'questions' from Dr. Cuckoo Bananas, MD and her troupe of stupid ass anti-vaxers. :)
Hey, AoA. Hey. Its not a cover-up. ITS…
sa smith | May 2, 2011Imagine a book I would write. On viruses (what else?).
Now, instead of it sounding like it was written by a chimpanzee who learned English from watching 'Waynes World' and 'Waynes World 2' on a loop + 4chan, imagine it was written by an articulate, science-literate human.
That is 'A Planet of Viruses', Carl Zimmers latest book. For a 'review', the only thing I need to say to this crowd is that the writing is just as fantastic as everything Carl writes, plus its on a topic that I love (and you all are probably interested in, if you read ERV).
There is another bonus for the Internet-Induced-…
sa smith | April 27, 2011I love condoms.
They are a medical device that not only helps prevent pregnancy, but a whole host of sexually transmitted diseases. And, while STDs can vary from 'dont know youre infected and doesnt have an effect on your health, really' to 'deadly' to the adults that contract them, the spectrum can look very different for the babies who get infected with the exact same viruses.
Babies get exposed to all kinds of viruses and bacteria at birth ("HAPPY BIRFDAY!"). They get in the babies eyes, mouth, everywhere. Thats why we give HIV+ moms antivirals right before they give birth, so their…
sa smith | April 18, 2011NatGeo had a pretty sweet program on the other night on viruses! I guess they made it like a couple years ago, but I somehow totally missed it!! If you read ERV, there was probably nothing new there for you, but its neat to *see* the scientists I talk about portrayed as creepy guys talking to themselves in deserted diners, surrounded by 3-inch-tall dancing chimpanzees.
ROFL!!!
National Geographic Explorer: The Virus Hunters
Few things I want to say--
Scientists do not all work in poorly lit rooms surrounded by tubes of bubbling colored liquids. Sometimes there are lasers and radioactive…
sa smith | April 5, 2011The last time I wrote about a new avenue of treatment with Hepatitis C was in 2009. And it was a very new, very far-out kinda treatment.
:-/
Now in 2011, I have another treatment breakthrough to talk about-- its more of a traditional antiviral therapy (protease inhibitor), and it works (especially on a variant of HepC that is difficult to treat, in racial populations that are difficult to treat), but Ive still got a Star-Wars-esque 'bad feeling about this...'
Boceprevir for Untreated Chronic HCV Genotype 1 Infection
Boceprevir for Previously Treated Chronic HCV Genotype 1 Infection
Long…
sa smith | April 4, 2011I talk about how viruses and endogenous retroviruses can cause cancer (and all kinds of other diseases) all the time here on ERV. But one thing I hope I highlight for you all as well is how the scientific community can use viruses as a tool. We can take advantage of their evolved tricks and our immune systems evolved tricks to create systems to treat diseases that have nothing at all to do with viruses or their associated diseases. Turn the tables on parasites-- use them for our advantage.
Gene therapy in humans, and viral promoters in GMO crops are a couple obvious examples that Ive…
sa smith | March 30, 2011Me: HAHAHAHA GUIS! FORTERRE IS MAH VIRUS BOYFRIEND!
The virophage as a unique parasite of the giant mimivirus. La Scola B, Desnues C, Pagnier I, Robert C, Barrassi L, Fournous G, Merchat M, Suzan-Monti M, Forterre P, Koonin E, Raoult D.
Me: HAHAHAHA GUIS! I IZ GOIN TO ANTARCTICA!
Virophage control of Antarctic algal host-virus dynamics
Me: HAHAHAHA GUIS! BRB I B IN BC!
A Virophage at the Origin of Large DNA Transposons
Matthias G. Fischer1 and Curtis A. Suttle1,2,3
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, 6339 Stores Road, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 2Department…
sa smith | February 16, 2011There are lots of controversies in viral research.
Not just woo ones, like whether HIV-1 exists and causes AIDS, but real controversies that have been going on for some time, like whether HIV-1 infects dendritic cells or DCs just carry-->pass on virions.
The public hears about the stupid stuff, but dont know (dont care?) about the real controversies. This travesty has a third negative effect, in that sometimes the public never hears the resolution to the stupid stuff, thus it lives on in word-of-mouth whispers and the internets underbelly, long after science has soundly whooped the stupid…
sa smith | January 19, 2011HA!
You remember a while ago, I wrote about how GMO papaya creates a population of 'papaya' that has herd immunity against papaya ringspot virus, thus is able to protect non-GMO papaya from the virus?
Theyre trying to do a similar thing with chickens (any commercial bird, really-- ducks, geese, turkeys, etc) and avian flu!
Suppression of Avian Influenza Transmission in Genetically Modified Chickens
Fundamentally this is the same idea as the GMO papaya, but the way they are accomplishing it is different. With the papaya, the GMO plants themselves were resistant to the virus, thus stopped the…
sa smith | November 19, 2010I guess Im going to have to change the name of 'ERV'.
Before I was just concerned.
Now, ERVs are officially not so special at all.
Viruses, all kinds of viruses, are all over the place in genomes-- from insects to humans.
Endogenous Viral Elements in Animal Genomes
Carl Zimmers take: Your inner viruses: the trickle becomes the flood
My quick-and-dirty take:
Every form of virus-- retrovirus, ssRNA(-), ssRNA(+), dsRAN, dsDNA, ssDNA-- every form of virus has an endogenous component now.
Theyre all over the place. Every organism has these 'alternative' endogenous viruses. Theyre inserted all…
sa smith | November 17, 2010About this time last year, I wrote a post on a new cancer virus, XMRV. I had some reservations about that paper I reviewed. I have some reservations about XMRV-->prostate cancer as a whole (Im just not convinced yet. at all.).
Its one thing to be skeptical about data, but its another to say 'Hey, thats a cool paper. They did something right!'
This paper isnt perfect. I have a lot of issues with it too-- BUT! I think it is a fantastic step in the right direction of establishing the role of a virus in a cancer and establishing the biochemistry of that interaction. This not only helps…
sa smith | October 8, 2010Im sure this isnt news to any of you-- Honey Bees are dying.
We dont know why.
I thought we had an answer to this problem, and the answer was a virus-- Israeli acute paralysis virus. But although IAPV definitely has an effect on honey bee immunity, apparently it fell through as The Cause of CCD.
We do not have a honey bee parasitome/microme/virome, so we dont totally know which parasites/microbes/viruses are 'normal' and which are the trouble makers, out of the countless parasites/microbes/viruses found in honey bee colonies all over the world. So it could be that CCD is some kind of '…