Abstract
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Two reviews in the issue focus on ZIKV and CHIKV. The recent dissemination of ZIKV in the Americas has resulted in an upsurge of major congenital anomalies and Guillain Barre syndrome in adults. Despite considerable progress in understanding ZIKV's mode of pathogenesis and mechanism of immune escape, many aspects of ZIKV pathogenesis remain obscure. Although there is currently no approved prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine, candidate ZIKV vaccines are in phase 2 clinical trials. In this context, Asif et al. review recent advances in understanding immune evasion strategies adapted by ZIKV and existing therapies against the virus. Another emerging virus is CHIKV, which has become a significant public health concern in Asian and African countries and is newly emerging in Middle East, Pacific, American, and European countries. The virus causes chikungunya fever, which is characterized by the presence of fever, rash, myalgia, and arthralgia. The virus also causes a form of arthritis in the joints and a common pattern of leukocyte infiltrate, cytokine production, and complement activation. Amdekar and colleagues review the mechanisms of CHIKV-induced arthritis. The authors note that a better understanding of the pathogenesis of CHIKV-induced arthritis will promote the development of novel strategies to predict and prevent the disease in virus-infected subjects.
Another significant viral infection that is increasing in prevalence is DENV, the causative agent of dengue fever. Although a vaccine that is partially effective is now available in some countries, there remains a need for sensitive diagnostics to increase the specificity of diagnosis and treatment. Iqbal et al. have compared immunological and nucleic acid-based methods for the detection of DENV. They recommend polymerase chain reaction as a suitable method for the rapid detection of DENV. HCV infection has also been on the rise. In addition to liver disease and cirrhosis, the virus can cause a variety of extrahepatic manifestations, such as central nervous system involvement, and has been associated with neurological and/or psychiatric disorders in up to 50% of cases. Carvalho and colleagues have analyzed data from multiple studies of HCV patients on the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms and cognitive disorders. Although correlations appear to exist, the authors note that a great deal more work on this topic needs to be done.
Two articles in this issue of Viral Immunology focus on vaccines. Miao and colleagues have developed a liposome adjuvant composed of hydrogenated soya phosphatide and cholesterol for use with an inactivated rabies vaccine. Vaccination studies demonstrated that the adjuvanted vaccine induced significantly enhanced immunity in mice. The authors propose that this liposome adjuvant could be an important immune potentiator relevant to vaccine development in general. Surman et al. (including myself as an author) have investigated the impact of vitamins A + D deficiencies on vaccine-induced CD8+ T cell responses. Using an influenza virus mouse model, the authors show that this vitamins A + D deficiency significantly reduced CD8+ T cell and total CD4+ T cell responses. These results could be reversed by the oral supplementation of vitamins at the time of vaccination. The authors recommend that close attention be paid to vitamins A and D levels among vaccine recipients in the clinical setting.
Finally, Yaseen et al. note that the extensive hypervariability of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) populations represents a major barrier against the success of currently available antiretroviral therapy. These factors include the very low fidelity nature of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, the extremely high HIV-1 replication rate, and the high genomic recombination rate of the virus. The authors addressed all of these factors in an article that summarizes recent advances in this area of HIV-1 research.
I would like to thank all of the authors for their excellent contributions to the journal.