Background and Aims: For more than half a century, the production of fowl pox vaccine at Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, has been carried out by injection method in the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) and the vaccine has a favorable and effective in poultry flocks and has provided a complete satisfaction to the poultry flocks owner. Fowl pox vaccine is also manufactured using chicken embryo cell (CEF) culture in other countries. The aim of this project is to develop a fowl pox vaccine based on CEF which is of vital importance and a requirement for Razi institute. Materials and Methods: In this study, chicken fibroblastic cells were used as primary cell culture in Hanks or DMEM media supplemented with fetal bovine serum 10% (FBS). First, the cells were cultured and the cell count was determined. Subsequently, the virus was added to the cells. The virus that used to prepare the vaccine was initially grown up in the fibroblast cells and had a titer of 106.3 TCID50/ml. To determine the viral load, two methods plaqueforming unit (PFU) and TCID50 were used, safety and efficacy tests were performed on 10 chickens, and the potency test on 20 chickens and vaccinated chickens were challenged with wild fowl pox virus strain. Results: The results of the tests showed that the vaccinated chickens had an adequate and sufficient resistance to the acute form of fowl pox virus. Conclusion: In total, according to the OIE standard, the above experiments showed that cell culture-based fowl pox vaccine can generate good immunity response and was high efficacy.
Background and Aims: Interferon alpha is an effective cytokine in viral infections, where it has various roles in immune function. The use of this antiviral agent in the treatment of viral infections and even cancers is common, although, the beneficial effects of this antiviral agent in high doses can be associated with side effects that limit its use. In this project, we tried to investigate the effects of different doses and timing of interferon alpha treatment on the expression of downstream interferon signaling genes and evaluation of the antiviral effects in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Materials and Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from treatment-naive HCV-infected patients. The cells were treated with different doses of Interferon alpha 2a (IFN-α 2a) and the mRNA expression of target genes (ISG15, MXA, PKR and OAS) at different time points was evaluated by Real Time PCR. The levels of ISG15 and OAS were measured in culture supernatant using ELISA and the level of HCV NS5A in chronic HCV patients was measured by flow cytometry. Results: Our results showed that IFN-α 2a effect on the expression of antiviral proteins was dependent on dose and time of administrated IFN-α. Conclusion: This finding indicates that IFN-α should be used at optimal dose to achieve the best efficiency and established balance between antiviral and anti-tumor effects of IFN-α with fewer side effects.
As the dawn of this new decade has begun, we have faced our arch-nemesis right at the start in the form of Coronavirus also known as COVID-19. Since its origin from Wuhan, China, it has been declared a pandemic and has affected several countries worldwide. This review article summarizes all the research, techniques, strategies, and treatment methodologies that are taking place internationally in the current frame of time. The road to developing a viable and effective vaccine has many hurdles that we have to pass through. Modern research has identified the receptor ACE2 that is common in both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. This homogeneity gives us a lead because we have an enormous amount of genomics and proteomics’ data related to the original strain and other viruses of the subfamily betacoronaviruses like MERS etc. Furthermore, the organization of the genome of this novel strain, as well as future perspectives of therapeutic procedures like by utilizing stem cells for immunomodulation derived from mesenchymal lining and many other viable options in the treatment of the virus have been briefly enlisted.
Background and AimsHuman T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), is as a type C retrovirus, which was first isolated from a patient with Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). Approximately 10-20 million people are infected by HTLV-1 virus worldwide, but only 5-10% of them develop clinical manifestations such as Acute-T lymphoma (ATL), HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), uveitis, and infective dermatitis. Indinavir was the first protease inhibitor used for treating HIV-1. It has some activity on HTLV-1, but it is not fully able to inhibit the HTLV-1 protease. Nowadays, design and construction of novel pharmacophore compounds can serve as an appropriate replacement for Indinavir. Materials and MethodsIn the present research, we used bioinformatics studies, to evaluate the potential role of four novel pharmacophres with inhibitory function on HTLV-1 protease, so called KMI pharmacophores (Keikha Modified Indinavir).ResultsAfter a detailed structural analysis of each of them, it seems all four designed phamacophores, (especially KMI-3) could be more effective on HTLV-1 protease than Indinavir.ConclusionsAccording to exact in silico evaluations of each four pharmacophores, KMI-3 demonstrated a potential for its use on treatment of HTLV-1 infections.
Background and Aims: One of the main causes of severe respiratory infection in infants and young children is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The disease can also occur in adults and elderly individuals and clinically not to be differentiated from other viral respiratory infection. The disease causes bronchiolitis, and sometimes pneumonia in new born and young children which requires hospital care. To differentiate the disease from other respiratory infection and rapid treatment accurate laboratory diagnosis of the disease is necessary. Materials and Methods: specimen taken from the sick children suffering from respiratory infection were processed and fixed on the slides. They were stained with fluorescein conjugated RSV specific antibody and examined by a UV microscope. Results: From 141 patients attending the Kasra hospital laboratories 62 of them were positive, most of the infection occurred in children with in 6 month of birth. The rate of infection was higher in the month of January and February. Conclusions: It seems that RSV infection is common in infants and young children which occur mostly during the cold season.
Human T-cell leukaemia virus type I (HTLV-I) is retrovirus type C which has been identified since 30 years ago from cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (by Poiesz et al) as the first human retrovirus [1]. Given that literatures, approximately 10-20 million people have been infected with HTLV-1 which most HTLV-1infected individuals are living in endemic countries including Japan, Caribbean, South America, Africa, Australia and Northeast of Iran (specially Mashhad, Neyshabour and Sabzevar). HTLV-1 is transmitted throughout unsafe-sexual contact, blood transfusion, drug injection and breastfeeding [2-3]. HTLV-1 can cause adult T-leukemia (ATL), HTLV1associated myelopathy tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), arthritis, uveitis, infective dermatitis and lymphadenitis or Sjogren syndrome [3]. Although 90% of HTLV-1 infected individuals remain as asymptomatic carriers during their lives; 30.25–4% of HTLV-1 infected persons develop HAM/TSP but accurate mechanism of HAM/TSP remains unknown. There is limited
Background and AimsFoot and Mouth Disease is one of the important live stocks contagious viral diseases caused by Aphtovirus genus, belonging to the family of Picornaviride. The important characteristic of FMD virus is high mutation that gives rise to diversity of antigen on the surface of neutralizing proteins. For this reason FMD virus has 7 distinct serotype and many subtypes. Vaccination is one of the methods to control the disease caused by different type and subtype of FMD virus, the effective vaccine should have virus with close relationship with field virus and also many passage on cell culture may cause mutation on viral genome. The rate of genetic changes of FMD virus type O2016 during of 70 passages in BHK monolayer cell is the main reason of this paper. Materials and MethodsAfter determining the type of virus in epithelium sample by ELISA, the virus inoculated in BHK monolayer cell for 70 consequence passage. Harvested viruses in 10 selected passage (P1,P10 , P20,P30,P40,P50,P60,P70) were subjected to RT-PCR, ELISA, titration, real time PCR, Double dimension virus neutralization test for immunological relationship value (r value) and Nucleotide sequencing of 1D segment of viral genome.ResultsHarvested FMD virus type O2016 from passage 1 until 70 were constant. No significant change was detected neither in sequencing nor in r values.ConclusionsThe virus has displayed very little change over the course of repeated passages, which can even be claimed to stay unchanged.
Background and AimsSerological assay is considered as one of the best choices for conducting large number of infection tests. Recombinant DNA technology has been used for expression of virus coat protein (CP) gene in prokaryotic bacterial cells such as Escherichia coli and the recombinant CP (rCP) is used as immunogen in antibody production. Heterologous CP protein expression and purification of the full length Prunus necrotic ringspot virus-PNRSV, Ilarvirus genus, from an Iranian isolate as an antigen was the aim of the study.Materials and MethodsA predominant Iranian PNRSV isolate (PK5) was selected and its CP gene was amplified using specific primers and the nucleotide sequence has been determined. The amplicon was cloned into pET28a(+) expression vector. The amplified CP gene and linearized pET-28a(+) were purified from gel, ligated and transformed into BL21 strain of E. coli. Expression of rCP in transformed BL21 competent cells was tested using SDS-PAGE and Western Blot assays.ResultsRT-PCR on total RNA extracted from the infected leaves resulted in a DNA fragment of approximately 688 bp corresponding to full PNRSV/CP. BLAST analysis of the obtained nucleotide sequence for PNRSV/CP revealed 97% identity to JW isolate (accession no. DQ983491). The size of pET-PNRSV/CP was about 6000 bp. The E. coli BL21 cells harboring recombinant pET-PNRSV/CP successfully expressed the recombinant CP after IPTG induction.ConclusionsIn this study, the recombinant CP gene of a predominant Iranian PNRSV isolates expressed in E. coli. The recombinant CP can be used for producing high quality antibodies against PNRSV.
