Rift Valley Fever Virus

Abstract

Rift Valley fever is considered to be one of the most important viral zoonoses in Africa. In 2000, the Rift valley fever virus spread to the Arabian Peninsula and caused two simultaneous outbreaks in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It is transmitted to ruminants and to humans by mosquitoes. The viral agent is an arbovirus, which belongs to the Phlebovirus genus in the Bunyaviridae family. This family of viruses comprises more than 300 members grouped into five genera: Orthobunyavirus, Phlebovirus, Hantavirus, Nairovirus, and Tospovirus. Several members of the Bunyaviridae family are responsible for fatal hemorrhagic fevers: Rift Valley fever virus (Phlebovirus), Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (Nairovirus), Hantaan, Sin Nombre and related viruses (Hantavirus), and recently Garissa, now identified as Ngari virus (Orthobunyavirus). Here are reviewed recent advances in Rift Valley fever virus, its epidemiology, molecular biology and focus on recent data on the interactions between viral and cellular proteins, which help to understand the molecular mechanisms utilized by the virus to circumvent the host cellular response.

Curcumin Inhibits Rift Valley Fever Virus Replication in Human Cells

“…3 is a RNA virus that belongs to the genus Phlebovirus, family Bunyaviridae (1). It infects humans and livestock and causes Rift Valley fever.…”

Arabidopsis thaliana plants expressing Rift Valley fever virus antigens: Mice exhibit systemic immune responses as the result of oral administration of the transgenic plants

“…The RVFV antigens chosen for this study were the highly immunogenic N protein and a deletion mutant of the Gn protein, a viral glycosylated surface protein that is the structure responsible for the attachment to the target cell [27] and that is known to induce and interact with virus-neutralizing antibodies [33]. Viral capsid proteins have previously been shown to be easily expressed in plants [12,13,34] and here we show that this is the case also for the RVFV N protein, as is evident from its expression at high concentrations.…”

A Glycoprotein Subunit Vaccine Elicits a Strong Rift Valley Fever Virus Neutralizing Antibody Response in Sheep

“…The virus has caused outbreaks in ruminants and humans in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (Flick and Bouloy 2005) and represents a threat to the well-being and livelihood of resource-poor farmers in much of Africa (Smith et al 2013). It is classified as a select agent and risk group-3 pathogen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the United States De-individuals, case fatalities of up to 20% have been reported (Bird et al 2009), including the recent outbreak in Mauritania (Heald 2012).…”