The Coronaviridae family, an enveloped RNA virus family, and, more particularly, human coronaviruses (HCoV), were historically known to be responsible for a large portion of common colds and other upper respiratory tract infections. HCoV are now known to be involved in more serious respiratory diseases, i.e. bronchitis, bronchiolitis or pneumonia, especially in young children and neonates, elderly people and immunosuppressed patients. They have also been involved in nosocomial viral infections. In 2002–2003, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), due to a newly discovered coronavirus, the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV); led to a new awareness of the medical importance of the Coronaviridae family. This pathogen, responsible for an emerging disease in humans, with high risk of fatal outcome; underline the pressing need for new approaches to the management of the infection, and primarily to its prevention. Another interesting feature of coronaviruses is their potential environmental resistance, despite the accepted fragility of enveloped viruses. Indeed, several studies have described the ability of HCoVs (i.e. HCoV 229E, HCoV OC43 (also known as betacoronavirus 1), NL63, HKU1 or SARS-CoV) to survive in different environmental conditions (e.g. temperature and humidity), on different supports found in hospital settings such as aluminum, sterile sponges or latex surgical gloves or in biological fluids. Finally, taking into account the persisting lack of specific antiviral treatments (there is, in fact, no specific treatment available to fight coronaviruses infections), the Coronaviridae specificities (i.e. pathogenicity, potential environmental resistance) make them a challenging model for the development of efficient means of prevention, as an adapted antisepsis-disinfection, to prevent the environmental spread of such infective agents. This review will summarize current knowledge on the capacity of human coronaviruses to survive in the environment and the efficacy of well-known antiseptic-disinfectants against them, with particular focus on the development of new methodologies to evaluate the activity of new antiseptic-disinfectants on viruses.

BackgroundHIV-1 can infect and replicate in both CD4 T cells and macrophages. In these cell types, HIV-1 entry is mediated by the binding of envelope glycoproteins (gp120 and gp41, Env) to the receptor CD4 and a coreceptor, principally CCR5 or CXCR4, depending on the viral strain (R5 or X4, respectively). Uninfected CD4 T cells undergo X4 Env-mediated autophagy, leading to their apoptosis, a mechanism now recognized as central to immunodeficiency.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe demonstrate here that autophagy and cell death are also induced in the uninfected CD4 T cells by HIV-1 R5 Env, while autophagy is inhibited in productively X4 or R5-infected CD4 T cells. In contrast, uninfected macrophages, a preserved cell population during HIV-1 infection, do not undergo X4 or R5 Env-mediated autophagy. Autophagosomes, however, are present in macrophages exposed to infectious HIV-1 particles, independently of coreceptor use. Interestingly, we observed two populations of autophagic cells: one highly autophagic and the other weakly autophagic. Surprisingly, viruses could be detected in the weakly autophagic cells but not in the highly autophagic cells. In addition, we show that the triggering of autophagy in macrophages is necessary for viral replication but addition of Bafilomycin A1, which blocks the final stages of autophagy, strongly increases productive infection.Conclusions/SignificanceTaken together, our data suggest that autophagy plays a complex, but essential, role in HIV pathology by regulating both viral replication and the fate of the target cells.

Small, cysteine-rich and cationic proteins with antimicrobial activity are produced by diverse organisms of all kingdoms and represent promising molecules for drug development. The ancestor of all industrial penicillin producing strains, the ascomycete Penicillium chryosgenum Q176, secretes the extensively studied antifungal protein PAF. However, the genome of this strain harbours at least two more genes that code for other small, cysteine-rich and cationic proteins with potential antifungal activity. In this study, we characterized the pafB gene product that shows high similarity to PgAFP from P. chrysogenum R42C. Although abundant and timely regulated pafB gene transcripts were detected, we could not identify PAFB in the culture broth of P. chrysogenum Q176. Therefore, we applied a P. chrysogenum-based expression system to produce sufficient amounts of recombinant PAFB to address unanswered questions concerning the structure and antimicrobial function. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based analyses revealed a compact β-folded structure, comprising five β-strands connected by four solvent exposed and flexible loops and an "abcabc" disulphide bond pattern. We identified PAFB as an inhibitor of growth of human pathogenic moulds and yeasts. Furthermore, we document for the first time an anti-viral activity for two members of the small, cysteine-rich and cationic protein group from ascomycetes.The increasing incidence of fatal microbial infections due to the development of resistance against licensed antimicrobial drugs raises a strong demand for new antimicrobial treatment strategies. Filamentous ascomycetes are a rich source of antimicrobial bio-molecules that have the potential for wide application in medicine and agriculture to prevent and treat microbial infections 1 . As such, the industrially relevant fungus Penicillium chrysogenum is not only a well-known producer of the β-lactam antibiotic penicillin, but also secretes small, cysteine-rich and cationic proteins with antimicrobial activity. P. chrysogenum is an ideal producer of bio-products with beneficial potential to mankind as it is fermentable and bulk production is easy and cheap 2 . Most importantly, it is recognized as a "safe organism" by the US Food and Drug Administration.The P. chrysogenum strain Q176 is the ancestor of all industrial strains used for penicillin production today 2,3 and of the strains Wisconsin 54-1255 4 and P2niaD18 5 , whose genomes were sequenced and are publicly available. P. chrysogenum Q176 secretes the antifungal protein PAF whose structural and functional properties have been extensively studied [6][7][8] . PAF represents a promising bio-molecule for novel antifungal drug development as