Some highlights of virus research in 1989

Some Highlights of Virus Research in 1990

“…A good example is hepatitis C virus (HCV), which we discussed last year (Elliott et al, 1990), where nucleotide sequences of cloned cDNAs derived from HCV-positive plasma suggested that the virus had a positive-strand RNA genome. More extensive nucleotide sequence data from Japanese isolates of HCV have recently been obtained (Kato et al, 1990;Takamizawa et al, 1991), and although the virus has still to be isolated, the sequence data suggest it is related to the Flaviviridae and in particular to members of the Pestivirus genus.…”

“…In our review last year (Elliott et al, 1990) we described work by P. Palese's group which opened the way to make defined nucleotide alterations in the segmented genome of influenza virus. In 1990, this group achieved just that (Enami et al, 1990).…”

A putative receptor for Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus from mosquito cells

“…We have characterized this cell polypeptide as a laminin-binding protein on the basis of its ability to interact directly with laminin as well as its immunologic cross-reactivity with the high-affinity human laminin receptor.The ability of viruses to bind to host cells is controlled by the interaction of viral attachment proteins with cellular receptor proteins (CRP). The interaction between viral attachment proteins and CRP is thought to influence tissue tropism and/or host range for many viruses (12,14,20,22,36,39,40). This phenomenon is particularly evident for some mammalian viruses, for which the ability of the virus to bind to distinct host cells (1,4,9,30) plays an important role in viral pathogenesis (5).The Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus complex is a group of serologically related alphaviruses in the family Togaviridae.…”