| structure and functionality in flavivirus ns-proteins: perspectives for drug design. | flaviviridae are small enveloped viruses hosting a positive-sense single-stranded rna genome. besides yellow fever virus, a landmark case in the history of virology, members of the flavivirus genus, such as west nile virus and dengue virus, are increasingly gaining attention due to their re-emergence and incidence in different areas of the world. additional environmental and demographic considerations suggest that novel or known flaviviruses will continue to emerge in the future. nevertheless, u ... | 2010 | 19945487 |
| structural and functional analyses of a conserved hydrophobic pocket of flavivirus methyltransferase. | the flavivirus methyltransferase (mtase) sequentially methylates the n7 and 2'-o positions of the viral rna cap (gpppa-rna → m(7)gpppa-rna → m(7)gpppam-rna), using s-adenosyl-l-methionine (adomet) as a methyl donor. we report here that sinefungin (sin), an adomet analog, inhibits several flaviviruses through suppression of viral mtase. the crystal structure of west nile virus mtase in complex with sin inhibitor at 2.0-å resolution revealed a flavivirus-conserved hydrophobic pocket located next t ... | 2010 | 20685660 |
| insect-specific virus discovery: significance for the arbovirus community. | arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), especially those transmitted by mosquitoes, are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in humans and animals worldwide. recent discoveries indicate that mosquitoes are naturally infected with a wide range of other viruses, many within taxa occupied by arboviruses that are considered insect-specific. over the past ten years there has been a dramatic increase in the literature describing novel insect-specific virus detection in mosquitoes, which has p ... | 2015 | 26378568 |
| insect-specific flaviviruses: a systematic review of their discovery, host range, mode of transmission, superinfection exclusion potential and genomic organization. | there has been a dramatic increase in the number of insect-specific flaviviruses (isfs) discovered in the last decade. historically, these viruses have generated limited interest due to their inability to infect vertebrate cells. this viewpoint has changed in recent years because some isfs have been shown to enhance or suppress the replication of medically important flaviviruses in co-infected mosquito cells. additionally, comparative studies between isfs and medically important flaviviruses can ... | 2015 | 25866904 |
| potential for co-infection of a mosquito-specific flavivirus, nhumirim virus, to block west nile virus transmission in mosquitoes. | nhumirim virus (nhuv) is an insect-specific virus that phylogenetically affiliates with dual-host mosquito-borne flaviviruses. previous in vitro co-infection experiments demonstrated prior or concurrent infection of aedes albopictus c6/36 mosquito cells with nhuv resulted in a 10,000-fold reduction in viral production of west nile virus (wnv). this interference between wnv and nhuv was observed herein in an additional ae. albopictus mosquito cell line, c7-10. a wnv 2k peptide (v9m) mutant capabl ... | 2015 | 26569286 |
| mercadeo virus: a novel mosquito-specific flavivirus from panama. | viruses in the genus flavivirus (family flaviviridae) include many arthropod-borne viruses of public health and veterinary importance. however, during the past two decades an explosion of novel insect-specific flaviviruses (isfs), some closely related to vertebrate pathogens, have been discovered. although many flavivirus pathogens of vertebrates have been isolated from naturally infected mosquitoes in panama, isfs have not previously been reported from the country. this report describes the iso ... | 2015 | 26304915 |
| ecuador paraiso escondido virus, a new flavivirus isolated from new world sand flies in ecuador, is the first representative of a novel clade in the genus flavivirus. | a new flavivirus, ecuador paraiso escondido virus (epev), named after the village where it was discovered, was isolated from sand flies (psathyromyia abonnenci, formerly lutzomyia abonnenci) that are unique to the new world. this represents the first sand fly-borne flavivirus identified in the new world. epev exhibited a typical flavivirus genome organization. nevertheless, the maximum pairwise amino acid sequence identity with currently recognized flaviviruses was 52.8%. phylogenetic analysis o ... | 2015 | 26355096 |
| new insights into flavivirus evolution, taxonomy and biogeographic history, extended by analysis of canonical and alternative coding sequences. | to generate the most diverse phylogenetic dataset for the flaviviruses to date, we determined the genomic sequences and phylogenetic relationships of 14 flaviviruses, of which 10 are primarily associated with culex spp. mosquitoes. we analyze these data, in conjunction with a comprehensive collection of flavivirus genomes, to characterize flavivirus evolutionary and biogeographic history in unprecedented detail and breadth. based on the presumed introduction of yellow fever virus into the americ ... | 2015 | 25719412 |
| novel flaviviruses from mosquitoes: mosquito-specific evolutionary lineages within the phylogenetic group of mosquito-borne flaviviruses. | novel flaviviruses that are genetically related to pathogenic mosquito-borne flaviviruses (mbfv) have been isolated from mosquitoes in various geographical locations, including finland. we isolated and characterized another novel virus of this group from finnish mosquitoes collected in 2007, designated as ilomantsi virus (ilov). unlike the mbfv that infect both vertebrates and mosquitoes, the mbfv-related viruses appear to be specific to mosquitoes similar to the insect-specific flaviviruses (is ... | 2014 | 25108382 |
| characterization of a novel insect-specific flavivirus from brazil: potential for inhibition of infection of arthropod cells with medically important flaviviruses. | in the past decade, there has been an upsurge in the number of newly described insect-specific flaviviruses isolated pan-globally. we recently described the isolation of a novel flavivirus (tentatively designated 'nhumirim virus'; nhuv) that represents an example of a unique subset of apparently insect-specific viruses that phylogenetically affiliate with dual-host mosquito-borne flaviviruses despite appearing to be limited to replication in mosquito cells. we characterized the in vitro growth p ... | 2014 | 25146007 |
| genesv - an approach to help characterize possible variations in genomic and protein sequences. | a computational approach for identification and assessment of genomic sequence variability (genesv) is described. for a given nucleotide sequence, genesv collects information about the permissible nucleotide variability (changes that potentially preserve function) observed in corresponding regions in genomic sequences, and combines it with conservation/variability results from protein sequence and structure-based analyses of evaluated protein coding regions. genesv was used to predict effects (f ... | 2014 | 24453480 |
| nhumirim virus, a novel flavivirus isolated from mosquitoes from the pantanal, brazil. | we describe the isolation of a novel flavivirus, isolated from a pool of mosquitoes identified as culex (culex) chidesteri collected in 2010 in the pantanal region of west-central brazil. the virus is herein designated nhumirim virus (nhuv) after the name of the ranch from which the mosquito pool was collected. flavivirus rna was detected by real-time rt-pcr of homogenized mosquitoes and from the corresponding c6/36 culture supernatant. based on full-genome sequencing, the virus isolate was gene ... | 2014 | 25252815 |
| barkedji virus, a novel mosquito-borne flavivirus identified in culex perexiguus mosquitoes, israel, 2011. | barkedji virus, named after the area of its first identification in senegal, is a newly discovered flavivirus (fv), for which we propose the abbreviation bjv. in the present study, we report the first-time detection of bjv in culex perexiguus mosquitoes in israel in 2011 and determination of its almost complete polyprotein gene sequence. we characterized the bjv genome and defined putative mature proteins, conserved structural elements and potential enzyme motifs along the polyprotein precursor. ... | 2013 | 23939978 |