| viral flice-inhibitory proteins (flips) prevent apoptosis induced by death receptors. | viruses have evolved many distinct strategies to avoid the host's apoptotic response. here we describe a new family of viral inhibitors (v-flips) which interfere with apoptosis signalled through death receptors and which are present in several gamma-herpesviruses (including kaposi's-sarcoma-associated human herpesvirus-8), as well as in the tumorigenic human molluscipoxvirus. v-flips contain two death-effector domains which interact with the adaptor protein fadd, and this inhibits the recruitmen ... | 1997 | 9087414 |
| molluscum contagiosum virus topoisomerase: purification, activities, and response to inhibitors. | molluscum contagiosum virus (mcv), the only member of the molluscipoxvirus genus, causes benign papules in healthy people but disfiguring lesions in immunocompromised patients. the sequence of mcv has been completed, revealing that mcv encodes a probable type i topoisomerase enzyme. all poxviruses sequenced to date also encode type i topoisomerases, and in the case of vaccinia virus the topoisomerase has been shown to be essential for replication. thus, inhibitors of the mcv topoisomerase might ... | 1998 | 9525670 |
| ectromelia, vaccinia and cowpox viruses encode secreted interleukin-18-binding proteins. | interleukin-18 (il-18) is a proinflammatory cytokine that plays a key role in the activation of natural killer and t helper 1 cell responses principally by inducing interferon-gamma (ifn-gamma). human and mouse secreted il-18-binding proteins (il-18bps) have recently been described which block il-18 activity but have no sequence similarity to membrane il-18 receptors. several poxvirus genes encode proteins with sequence similarity to il-18bps. here we show that vaccinia, ectromelia and cowpox vi ... | 2000 | 10769064 |
| an overview of poxviruses. | the poxvirus family is a diverse and interesting group of viruses that affect both humans and animals. poxviruses are epitheliotropic and therefore are of interest to the dermatologist. the genera of poxviruses known to affect humans are orthopoxvirus, parapoxvirus, molluscipoxvirus, and yatapoxvirus. the different poxviruses are reviewed, including their history, incidence, clinical presentation, and treatment. | 2001 | 11148468 |
| molluscum contagiosum: recent advances in pathogenic mechanisms, and new therapies. | two poxviruses, molluscum contagiosum virus (mcv) and variola virus are specific to humans. mcv is present worldwide and is directly passed by direct skin to skin contact to produce cutaneous and, rarely, mucosal lesions. it occurs predominantly in preadolescent children, sexually active adults, participants in sports with skin to skin contact, and in individuals with impaired cellular immunity. mcv characteristically proliferates within the follicular epithelium, and with routine fixation produ ... | 2002 | 12358555 |
| poxvirus genomes: a phylogenetic analysis. | the evolutionary relationships of 26 sequenced members of the poxvirus family have been investigated by comparing their genome organization and gene content and by using dna and protein sequences for phylogenetic analyses. the central region of the genome of chordopoxviruses (chpvs) is highly conserved in gene content and arrangement, except for some gene inversions in fowlpox virus (fpv) and species-specific gene insertions in fpv and molluscum contagiosum virus (mcv). in the central region 90 ... | 2004 | 14718625 |
| genome-based phylogeny of poxvirus. | a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of poxviridae was performed in this study. phylogenetic trees were reconstructed from whole genomic information including gene order, gene content, and all conserved gene protein sequences. gene content and gene order were the methods used for the first time in cladogram reconstruction of poxvirus. the results of the different methods finally shared mainly consistent tree topologies, which were supported by the classic taxonomy of poxviridae. according to th ... | 2006 | 16407658 |
| the traf3-binding site of human molluscipox virus flip molecule mc159 is critical for its capacity to inhibit fas-induced apoptosis. | members of the viral flice/caspase-8 inhibitory protein (v-flip) family prevent induction of apoptosis by death receptors through inhibition of the processing and activation of procaspase-8 and -10 at the level of the receptor-associated death-inducing signaling complex (disc). here, we have addressed the molecular function of the v-flip member mc159 of the human molluscum contagiosum virus. mc159 flip powerfully inhibited both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent cell death induced by fas. ... | 2006 | 16410799 |
| [entomopoxviruses and biological control.] | poxviridae are divided into two subfamilies: the chordopoxvirinae (poxviruses of vertebrates) and the entomopoxvirinae (insect poxviruses). entomopoxviruses (epvs) are large (300-400 nm) oval shaped viruses. the genome of epvs is large, with covalent ends and is a linear double-stranded dna (200-240 kbp) molecule. the entomopoxvirinae comprises three genera based on host insect and virion morphology. genus a viruses infect coleopterans, genus b viruses infect lepidopterans and orthopterans, and ... | 2005 | 17124689 |
| multicolour, multiplex real-time pcr assay for the detection of human-pathogenic poxviruses. | after eradication of variola virus, one of the most dangerous infectious diseases affecting mankind, today other poxviruses of different genera can cause infection in humans. these viruses include human-specific molluscipoxviruses as well as zoonotic orthopoxviruses and parapoxviruses. while non-variola orthopoxvirus infections mostly cause mild symptoms in immunocompetent persons, they can evoke severe disease in immunocompromised patients. since the typical poxviral skin lesions are rarely dia ... | 2010 | 19879351 |
| genus specific evolution of codon usage and nucleotide compositional traits of poxviruses. | poxviruses are complex in their nucleotide compositional features of the coding regions. the codon usages in poxviruses are in accordance with their compositional bias. in the poxviridae family, codon usage patterns and nucleotide compositional traits are widely divergent across species but some conservation was observed within a genus. viruses from six chordopox genera, i.e., avipoxvirus, capripoxvirus, cervidpoxvirus, orthopoxvirus, suipoxvirus, yatapoxvirus, and one entomopox genus- betaentom ... | 2011 | 21369827 |
| cidofovir activity against poxvirus infections. | cidofovir [(s)-1-(3-hydroxy-2-phosphonylmethoxypropyl)cytosine, hpmpc] is an acyclic nucleoside analog approved since 1996 for clinical use in the treatment of cytomegalovirus (cmv) retinitis in aids patients. cidofovir (cdv) has broad-spectrum activity against dna viruses, including herpes-, adeno-, polyoma-, papilloma- and poxviruses. among poxviruses, cidofovir has shown in vitro activity against orthopox [vaccinia, variola (smallpox), cowpox, monkeypox, camelpox, ectromelia], molluscipox [mo ... | 2010 | 21994641 |