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Introduction to Cells, DNA, and Viruses
Published in Patricia G. Melloy, Viruses and Society, 2023
Virologists are scientists who study viruses. They typically conduct their work in laboratory settings, although they occasionally conduct their research outside the laboratory and engage in more field work. A virologist might conduct experiments using live animal models (in vivo research) or work with mammalian or other animal cells grown in culture in the laboratory (in vitro research). One commonly used technique to study viral growth in the lab is known as a plaque assay. In this technique, host cells are added to media in a petri dish, and then the cells are infected with virus for several days. Scientists then monitor the clearings in the cell layer created by the virus killing cells in that local area. The clearing is known as a plaque. The number of plaques can be counted to quantify the amount of virus present (Lostroh 2019). The virologist uses all the tools that a typical cell and molecular biologist might use to analyze genes and gene expression into a protein. DNA sequencing is used to compare one virus to another. A powerful technique used to amplify DNA sequences is known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and this tool can be used for medical diagnostics to look for viral nucleic acid as well (Nobel Media AB 1993). Techniques such as northern blot and western blot are used to study RNA and protein expression respectively. Scientists may also use online databases or tools to study viral DNA sequences or protein structure.
Conclusion
Published in Paweł Daniluk, Patient Autonomy and Criminal Law, 2023
The issue of mandatory vaccination has recently become particularly topical due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has significantly affected the functioning of modern societies, including the perception of patient autonomy.21 The introduction of compulsory COVID-19 vaccination, and the resulting restriction of patient autonomy, have become a subject of fervent debate. As part of the debate, it has been pointed out that mandatory vaccination interferes with fundamental human rights (e.g. the right to respect for private life) but also that mandatory vaccination should be permissible under certain conditions.22 It is a kind of clash between the freedom of the individual to decide whether or not to get vaccinated and, more generally, the need to protect public health. Therefore, the decision of individual countries to introduce or refrain from introducing mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 is a complicated decision that needs a lot of caution. It seems that the opinions and suggestions of virologists should be the primary basis for making these decisions.23 In fact, however, it unfortunately appears that those in power are also taking into account the demands of the so-called ‘anti-vaccine movement', whose activities, to a certain extent, affect public opinion on COVID-19 vaccination.24
Artificial Intelligence Based COVID-19 Detection using Medical Imaging Methods: A Review
Published in S. Prabha, P. Karthikeyan, K. Kamalanand, N. Selvaganesan, Computational Modelling and Imaging for SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, 2021
M Murugappan, Ali K Bourisly, Palani Thanaraj Krishnan, Vasanthan Maruthapillai, Hariharan Muthusamy
Diagnosis of COVID-19 relies on the following criteria: (a) clinical symptoms; (b) clinical imaging (i.e., Computed Tomography (CT) and general X-Ray images); (c) nucleic acid test/pathogenic testing; (d) close contact history; (e) contact history with patients with fever; (f) clustering occurrence; and (g) epidemiological history (Sana et al. 2020, Radiology assistant 2020). The standard test recommended by the WHO to diagnose COVID-19 is the Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) and RT-PCR (Hao & Li 2020, EUA-COVID-19 2020). Sudden increase in levels of C-reactive protein and ESR is used as an additional tool for diagnosing COVID-19. Significant limitations of RT-PCR testing are: (a) many countries do not have abundant access to sophisticated labs and appropriate laboratory tools to perform this test; (b) the test is supposed to be repeated 2 to 3 times to validate the accuracy of results; (c) limited access to virologists and epidemiologists in many countries slows down the diagnosis process; (d) turnaround time to get the results of RT-PCR can be up to 72 hours for one sample; (e) testing is expensive and could not be afforded by developing countries; and (f) finally, it is minimally invasive (Soon et al. 2020). The above limitations of RT-PCR are also valid for the NAAT test; however, if the viral load is low while testing, the NAAT test results will be negative (Ying et al. 2020). All the above issues significantly delay the diagnosis process. Early isolation stops the spread and allows treatment to start early.
Tracing the recent updates on vaccination approaches and significant adjuvants being developed against HIV
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2023
Shiza Malik, Khalid Muhammad, Sanaa Masood Aslam, Yasir Waheed
Scientists are trying continuously to develop vaccines and drug adjuvants to increase immune responses and complement body defense against HIV-1 and AIDS progression. The reasons behind this difficulty in treatment strategies is due to the complex and rapidly evolving nature of HIV and its interactive mechanism with the immune system, which is still beyond appropriate understanding. A robust, effective, and long-term immunity-inducing vaccination and drug treatment are desired yet remain the unattained goal for medical virologists. Besides vaccination trials, scientists are looking for drug regimens for curing the highly infectious symptoms of AIDS. Under this scenario, it is important to understand and comprehend the complex nature of the HIV-1 virus, its genetic diversity, host-viral interaction phenomena, and gaps in the already manufactured treatment options.
Merits of the ‘good’ viruses: the potential of virus-based therapeutics
Published in Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, 2021
Qianyu Zhang, Wen Wu, Jinqiang Zhang, Xuefeng Xia
Ever since the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) in 1890, viruses have long been considered as pathogens to cause disease. In fact, it has been recognized that viruses have been playing multiple and important roles in the evolution of cellular organisms [1]. Virus constantly blurs the line between ‘the living’ and ‘the non-living,’ and Forterre et al. described the virus as ‘a capsid-encoding organism that is composed of protein and nucleic acids, self-assembles in a nucleocapsid and uses a ribosome-encoding organism for the completion of its life cycle’ [2]. Viruses provide interesting insights as they possess enormous potential to be engineered into useful biodrugs with therapeutic benefits. Agbandje-McKenna et al. suggested that the use of ‘good’ viruses should be a common practice for virologists due to the fact that some viruses have beneficial properties for their host in a symbiotic relationship, and other natural and laboratory-modified viruses can even be used to treat and prevent various diseases [3]. In this case, bacteriophages, oncolytic viruses, viral vectors, virus-like particles, and virosomes have been utilized for therapeutic purposes [4–7]. We will highlight these aspects in the following discussions.
A review on human body fluids for the diagnosis of viral infections: scope for rapid detection of COVID-19
Published in Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, 2021
Sphurti S Adigal, Nidheesh V Rayaroth, Reena V John, Keerthilatha M Pai, Sulatha Bhandari, Aswini Kumar Mohapatra, Jijo Lukose, Ajeetkumar Patil, Aseefhali Bankapur, Santhosh Chidangil
According to WHO, the test is the key to control the disease and identify the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 [10]. At present, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the gold standard for analyzing the swab collected from the subject is the widely accepted method for the screening of SARS-CoV-2 [11]. Even though PCR assays detect a small portion of RNA, it cannot replace the viral culture-based methods in determining viability [12]. Viable SARS–CoV-2 viruses are isolated from upper respiratory tract specimens and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples, not from other clinical samples [13]. The risk of transmission and longer time for the test procedure are the major drawbacks of viral culture techniques. So far, only limited studies have been reported on viral culture-based diagnosis [14]. Therefore, there is a necessity of more studies including safety guidance for the virologists to avoid the continuous exposure of virus while culturing.