Publications by authors named "Igor Morozov"

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is an important transboundary animal pathogen with significant impacts on the global swine industry. Overwhelming proinflammatory responses are a major virulence mechanism for ASFV, but the dynamics of these changes during clinical disease are not completely understood. We constructed a detailed portrait of the innate immune responses during acute African swine fever (ASF) at the cellular, transcriptomic, and cytokine levels.

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African swine fever virus (ASFV) and classical swine fever virus (CSFV) are important transboundary animal diseases (TADs) affecting swine. ASFV is a large DNA virus with a genome size of 170-190+ kilobases (kB) belonging to the family , genus Asfivirus. CSFV is a single-stranded RNA virus with a genome size of approximately 12 kB, belonging to the family , genus Pestivirus.

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African swine fever virus (ASFV) and classical swine fever virus (CSFV) are important transboundary animal diseases (TADs) affecting swine. ASFV is a large DNA virus with a genome size of 170-190 kilobases (kB) belonging to the family Asfarviridae, genus Asfivirus. CSFV is a single-stranded RNA virus with genome size of approximately 12 kB belonging to the family Flaviviridae, genus Pestivirus.

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The 2024 outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 in U.S. dairy cattle presented an unprecedented scenario where the virus infected bovine mammary glands and was detected in milk, raising serious concerns for public health and the dairy industry.

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Since the first emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 viruses in dairy cattle, the virus has continued to spread, reaching 17 states and at least 1000 dairy herds in the United States. Subsequently, spillovers of the virus from dairy cattle to humans have been reported. Pigs are an important host in influenza ecology because they serve as a mixing vessel in which novel reassortant viruses with pandemic potential can be generated.

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The open reading frame 3a (ORF3a) is a protein important to the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2. The cytoplasmic domain of ORF3a has three canonical tyrosine-based sorting signals (160YNSV163, 211YYQL213, and 233YNKI236), and a previous study has indicated that mutation of the 160YNSV163 motif abrogated plasma membrane expression and inhibited ORF3a-induced apoptosis. Here, we have systematically removed all three tyrosine-based motifs and assessed the importance of each motif or combination of motifs in trafficking to the cell surface.

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Since the first emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 viruses in dairy cattle, the virus has continued to spread, reaching 17 states and at least 970 dairy herds in the United States. Subsequently, spillovers of the virus from dairy cattle to humans have been reported. Pigs are an important reservoir in influenza ecology because they serve as a mixing vessel in which novel reassortant viruses with pandemic potential can be generated.

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The African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes fatal disease in pigs and is currently spreading globally. Commercially safe vaccines are urgently required. Aiming to generate a novel live attenuated vaccine (LAV), a recombinant ASFV was generated by deleting the viral O174L (PolX) gene.

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Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are glycolipid-reactive T cells with potent immunoregulatory properties. iNKT cells activated with the marine-sponge-derived glycolipid, α-galactosylceramide (αGC), provide a universal source of T-cell help that has shown considerable promise for a wide array of therapeutic applications. This includes harnessing iNKT-cell-mediated immune responses to adjuvant whole inactivated influenza virus (WIV) vaccines.

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The recent incursion of highly pathogenic influenza viruses into dairy cattle opens new insights for influenza virus ecology and its interspecies transmission and may have a significant impact on public health and agriculture. The aim of this study was to determine the stability of a bovine highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus isolate in the milk byproduct lactose and to evaluate two inactivation methods using industrial procedures. The bovine isolate of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus was stable for 14 days in a concentrated lactose solution under refrigerated conditions.

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Article Synopsis
  • A highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus from cows remained stable for 14 days in a concentrated lactose solution when kept refrigerated.
  • The study found that both heat and citric acid can effectively inactivate the virus in lactose.
  • These findings emphasize the virus's ability to persist in lactose and the effectiveness of industrial methods to eliminate it.
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  • Proteolytic activation of the haemagglutinin glycoprotein is crucial for the infectivity of influenza A virus (IAV), with different proteases targeting different HA motifs.
  • The study utilized CRISPR/Cas 9 technology to create gene-edited knockout (KO) pigs lacking the TMPRSS2 protease to investigate its effects on IAV replication.
  • Results showed that IAV replication was delayed in KO pigs, leading to reduced virus shedding and lower viral loads in the respiratory system, indicating the potential of GE pigs to help control IAV infections and prevent zoonotic transmissions.
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  • Recent outbreaks of HPAIV H5N1 in terrestrial mammals, including dairy cattle, highlight the urgent need for improved monitoring of zoonotic diseases.
  • Researchers detected and characterized the H5N1 virus from environmental samples taken from a Kansas dairy farm, finding unique genetic substitutions not seen in recent 2024 H5N1 isolates.
  • The study suggests that environmental sampling can provide valuable insights into the virus's evolution and stresses the importance of ongoing epidemiological surveillance to track these emerging pathogens.
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Mitochondrial forms account approximately 1-2% of all nonsyndromic cases of hearing loss (HL). One of the most common causative variants of mtDNA is the m.1555A > G variant of the MT-RNR1 gene (OMIM 561000).

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Rift Valley fever (RVF) in ungulates and humans is caused by a mosquito-borne RVF phlebovirus (RVFV). Live attenuated vaccines are used in livestock (sheep and cattle) to control RVF in endemic regions during outbreaks. The ability of two or more different RVFV strains to reassort when co-infecting a host cell is a significant veterinary and public health concern due to the potential emergence of newly reassorted viruses, since reassortment of RVFVs has been documented in nature and in experimental infection studies.

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  • Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is a zoonotic virus that causes skin lesions in humans and is currently spreading globally, particularly its clade IIb strain from a 2022 outbreak.
  • A study was conducted on domestic pigs where some were inoculated with the MPXV clade IIb isolate, revealing that both infected pigs and sentinel controls developed minor lesions, but no infectious virus was isolated.
  • The research demonstrates that domestic pigs can be experimentally infected with MPXV and are capable of transmitting the virus to other animals, marking a significant finding in understanding the virus's host range.
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Rapid evolution of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) is driven by antigenic drift but also by reassortment, which might result in robust replication in and transmission to mammals. Recently, spillover of clade 2.3.

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New nitrosonium manganese(II) nitrate, (NO)Mn(NO), has been synthesized and structurally characterized. In the temperature range of 45-298 K, the crystal is hexagonal (centrosymmetric sp. gr.

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Unlabelled: Rift Valley Fever phlebovirus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic pathogen that causes major agricultural and public health problems in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It is considered a potential agro-bioterrorism agent for which limited countermeasures are available. To address diagnostic needs, here we describe a rapid and sensitive molecular method immediately employable at sites of suspected outbreaks in animals that commonly precede outbreaks in humans.

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Article Synopsis
  • Proteolytic activation of hemagglutinin (HA) in influenza A virus is crucial for its infectivity, with different proteases targeting different HA motifs.
  • * Highly pathogenic avian influenza has a multibasic cleavage site activated by common proteases, while pandemic strains, like H1N1 and H3N2, are activated by trypsin-like proteases like TMPRSS2.
  • * Gene-edited knockout pigs showed delayed virus replication, reduced virus shedding, and less severe pathology compared to wild-type pigs, highlighting the potential of using gene-edited pigs to reduce economic losses and prevent new IAV variants.*
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A wide range of animal species show variable susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2; however, host factors associated with varied susceptibility remain to be defined. Here, we examined whether susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and virus tropism in different animal species are dependent on the expression and distribution of the virus receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 () and the host cell factor transmembrane serine protease 2 (). We cataloged the upper and lower respiratory tract of multiple animal species and humans in a tissue-specific manner and quantitatively evaluated the distribution and abundance of and mRNA .

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The objective of this work was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a recombinant, subunit SARS-CoV-2 animal vaccine in cats against virulent SARS-CoV-2 challenge. Two groups of cats were immunized with two doses of either a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike protein vaccine or a placebo, administered three weeks apart. Seven weeks after the second vaccination, both groups of cats were challenged with SARS-CoV-2 via the intranasal and oral routes simultaneously.

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Over the last two decades, it has become clear that the human gut microbiota, a complex community of bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses, are a critical determinant of human health and disease. Microbiota-derived metabolites provide the host with energy, protect against pathogens, modulate immune and endocrine systems as well as the level of reactive oxygen species in the gut. It has come with no surprise that the human gut microbiota is also linked to the production, utilisation and regulation of host hormones.

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